MyLifeBits was a

life-logging A lifelog is a personal record of one's daily life in a varying amount of detail, for a variety of purposes. The record contains a comprehensive dataset of a human's activities. The data could be used to increase knowledge about how people liv ...

experiment begun in 2001. It is a

Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...

project inspired by

Vannevar Bush Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II, World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almo ...

's hypothetical

Memex A memex (from "memory expansion") is a hypothetical electromechanical device for interacting with microform documents and described in Vannevar Bush's 1945 article " As We May Think". Bush envisioned the memex as a device in which individuals w ...

computer system. The project includes

full-text search In Document retrieval, text retrieval, full-text search refers to techniques for searching a single computer-stored document or a collection in a full-text database. Full-text search is distinguished from searches based on metadata or on parts of ...

, text and audio annotations, and hyperlinks. The "experimental subject" of the project was computer scientist

Gordon Bell Chester Gordon Bell (August 19, 1934 – May 17, 2024) was an American electrical engineer and manager. An early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), from 1960–1966, Bell designed several of their PDP machines and later served as ...

, and the project tried to collect a lifetime of storage on and about Bell. Jim Gemmell of Microsoft Research and Roger Lueder were the architects and creators of the system and its software. MyLifeBits is an attempt to fulfill

's vision of an automated store of the documents, pictures (including those taken automatically), and sounds an individual has experienced in his lifetime, to be accessed with speed and ease. For this, Bell

digitized Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english ...

all documents he had read or produced, CDs, emails, and so on. He continued to do so through his death in 2024, gathering web pages browsed, phone and instant messaging conversations and the like more or less automatically. The book ''Total Recall'' describes the vision and implications for a personal, lifetime e-memory for recall, work, health, education, and immortality. In 2010, ''Total Recall'' was published in paperback. , Bell was no longer using the

wearable camera A body camera, bodycam, body-worn video (BWV), body-worn camera, or wearable camera is a wearable technology, wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system. Body cameras have a range of uses and designs, of which the best-known us ...

associated with the project. He described the rise of the

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

as largely fulfilling Bush's vision of the Memex. Bell died in 2024.

References

External links

MyLifeBits - Microsoft Research
Archived version.
Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell – A look into Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center, Part I
Channel9 video, including MyLifeBits material.

Thinking about how

lifelog A lifelog is a personal record of one's daily life in a varying amount of detail, for a variety of purposes. The record contains a comprehensive dataset of a human's activities. The data could be used to increase knowledge about how people liv ...

s, or flogs, would fundamentally change

psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...

and

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

.
"A Head For Detail"
Clive Thompson, ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

'' Microsoft Research Lifelogging {{Microsoft-stub

See also

References

External links