X-Message-Number: 24127
From: "Basie" <>
Subject: Quest for ultimate memory begins
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 23:50:32 -0400

Quest for ultimate memory begins


Thursday 20 May 2004, 23:29 Makka Time, 20:29 GMT


Photo capture systems will be able to record every thing you do

Imagine being able to record every interesting conversation you have ever
held in your life, not to mention all the photos and writing you have done.



Top Internet researchers attending the annual World Wide Web conference in
New York this week heard all about a data storage device so powerful it
could record every and anything you ever do.

Head of research for Microsoft Corp, Rick Rashid, said there will be very
little reason for anyone to throw anything away ever again.

In a keynote speech to the conference, he described what consumers might do
with a terabyte of data storage that costs around $1,000 and is capable of
holding more than 1 trillion bytes of computer data.

"You can store every conversation you have ever had, from the time you are
born to the time you die," Rashid said.

Visual record

The memory is such that a person could snap a picture with a 180-degree
fish-eye view of one's surroundings for every minute of every day for the
rest of one's life.

Microsoft researchers in the United Kingdom have built prototypes of such a
life-recording device called SenseCam.

They are gearing up for a second generation of photo capture systems no
bigger than a necklace pendant, Rashid said.

"Obviously this raises a whole lot of issues about privacy and the control
of one's personal information," Rashid said.

"But this is where we are going. It's already the case that kids are walking
around with cameraphones taking a lot of pictures. This is just an extension
of that," he said.

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