In the News: Researchers Retrigger Memory with Sensecam Technology

A recent article in The New York Times explains the benefits of the Sensecam, a fascinating new device intended to help aging Alzheimer’s patients remember events from the past.

Sensecam-based research is pretty simple yet simultaneously revolutionary: a participant with poor memory wears the Sensecam, a tiny black box around the neck. The Sensecam continuously takes digital pictures and archives audio throughout the course of an event, like a child’s wedding, a friend’s birthday, or a grandchild’s graduation.

Sensecam technology was originally developed by Microsoft and then was licensed by the British company Vicon to get young people to log and upload their experiences on Facebook and Youtube. Yet, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh realized how to make us of the technology for seniors with memory deficiencies. The key is to comb through the findings and piece together the essential components of an experience.

As the article explains though, some types of images help more than others to reactivate a memory:

The researchers came up with some broad rules for identifying and retrieving images likely to serve as memory triggers. For a people-based experience like a family reunion, the system selects photographs in which faces are clearly discernible; for a location-based experience like a visit to a museum, it uses geographical positions provided by GPS and accelerometer data to judge what images might be most salient