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Lifelogging has been an intriguing idea for some time. The idea surfaced in non-fiction literature before the technology was considered even remotely feasible. In 1945, Vannevar Bush, an American engineer, discussed a device called the ‘Memex’, which would be a mechanised personal memory supplement (Bush 1945). More recently, Don Norman speculated about a Personal Life Recorder, ‘The Teddy’ (Norman 1992). The Teddy would be a device that serves as “a personal assistant, small and unobtrusive, that could remember

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the details of life for us, so that we could always have them available on demand” (Norman 1992, 72). Another visionary was David Gelernter who described software models that capture a “chunk of reality” (Gelernter 1992, 3) and make it accessible to people on computing devices.

Current technology has long surpassed the idea of the Memex. Gordon Bell and Steve Mann are well-known for gathering personal information to create individual databases of their lives. Mann started wearing a camera in the 1980s, as a precursor to what he calls

lifeglogs, which can be conceived as a different term for a lifelog (Mann 2004). From 2001 to

2007, Bell, who coined the term ‘lifelog’ around 2001, digitised all sorts of information about himself, such as the books he read, music he listened to, memos he wrote and he collected photographs using a wearable camera, all for the Microsoft project MyLifeBits (Bell & Gemmell 2009, 29). This can be considered the first explicit lifelogging project. There are also several running projects, most notably that of Cathal Gurrin who has been lifelogging

since 2006.11 Another recent project is that of William McDonough designing “the first living

archive” (Fleming 2013).

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has a track record of developing lifelog-like programmes that capture personal information. Both ‘LifeLog’, a “system that captures, stores, and makes accessible the flow of one person’s experience in and interactions with the world” (DARPA/IPTO 2003), and ‘Total Information Awareness’ (TIA), a data mining programme used to combat terrorism, were programmes aimed to collect as much information as possible about a person. Both projects had to be withdrawn within two years as a result of controversy, because they were deemed too intrusive to

privacy and an infringement of civil freedom (DARPA/IPTO 2003; DARPA 2003).12

There is also commercial interest in lifelog technology. Microsoft has developed a camera especially designed for lifelogging, namely the SenseCam, which also featured

prominently in the MyLifeBits project (Microsoft 2011).13 _{Today, a new generation of}

11 _{More information about his research can be found at http://www.computing.dcu.ie/people/dr-cathal-gurrin}

[Accessed 30-06-2014].

12 _{However, shortly afterwards, similar programmes were established by DARPA such as ‘ASSIST’ (Advanced}

Soldier Sensor Information System and Technology) in 2004, which is a project to equip soldiers in a combat zone with sensors in order to augment their memory with digital reports (Schlenoff, Weiss & Potts Steves 2011; Shachtman 2004).

13 _{The SenseCam has been rebranded the Vicon Revue. The Vicon Revue surpasses the ability of conventional}

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cameras has been developed especially for the purposes of lifelogging, and are or will soon be commercially available, such as the Parashoot, Narrative Clip, MeCam, Autographer, and Looxcie 3. Likewise, Sony has recently announced its own lifelog camera. These are

wearable cameras that take photos automatically and that can be worn by the lifelogger. The Narrative Clip, for example, is barely larger than a sizeable postage stamp.

There are also various applications that transform existing devices, most notably the smartphone, into lifelog devices, including Saga, LifeBox, Chronos, and Sony’s LifeLog app. These applications support the idea that the smartphone could become a pivotal lifelogging device. The smartphone has several characteristics that make it suitable for becoming a lifelogging device. First, it is firmly embedded into everyday life. Smartphone are often carried around almost everywhere allowing the owner to lifelog most times of the day without having the additional burden of carrying or purchasing a device solely for

lifelogging. Also, the smartphone is both equipped with sensors as well as connected to the Internet, allowing the user to capture information about physical conditions as well as information about her Internet behaviour and can send this information to the cloud. Moreover, turning a smartphone into a lifelogging device can be as easy as installing an application.

More devices are now being developed that seem similar to lifelogging devices and can be used for lifelogging. One trend is the rise of the Quantified-Self movement, consisting of devices and applications that quantify aspects of human life. This movement seems to have a similar vision of capturing aspects of an individual’s life and making them retrievable but with a narrower focus on numbers. There are numerous wearable devices and applications that fit the Quantified-Self moniker, such as Fitbit, Jawbone UP, Nike’s Fuelband, Sony’s Smartband, Misfit Shine, et cetera. Another development is the creation of ambient

intelligent technologies in which devices will increasingly be interconnected and equipped with sensor devices (see 4.2.2.3 Reduced expectation of privacy). Finally, there are other movements, such as the Internet of Things (Evans 2011: Guillemin & Friess 2009) or the aforementioned Sensor Web (Introduction) that motivate the creation of new devices and applications that can capture and distribute personal information.

environment by taking more photos when changes are measured. Moreover, interfaces have been designed in order to query and present this information. Therefore, the Vicon Revue in combination with intelligent software can be considered one of the first primitive lifelogs.

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Nonetheless, lifelog technology is still at an early stage of development. There is still much space for improvement regarding critical functionalities, such as the augmentation of data with significance and meaning and the related ability to search and find information about elements of one’s life. Another area of improvement is the integration of different data sources. There are many potential data sources that can be made compatible with lifelog technology that are at the present not used for lifelogging or are not available to private individuals .