Before You Forget, IBM Comes with Pensieve
Yes, the new software technology
is named “Pensieve”. Developed at IBM Research Labs, it uses
the images, sounds, and text recorded on everyday mobile devices to help
people recall names, faces, conversations, and other important
information. The technology has the ability to
understand the context in which data is captured. It connects the data,
and then use this knowledge to help bring the correct information to a
person when it’s needed.
“This is like having a personal assistant for your memory,” said Dr.
Yaakov Navon, the lead researcher and image processing expert from IBM’s
Haifa Research Lab. “Our daily routines are overflowing with situations
where we gain new information through meetings, advertisements,
conferences, events, surfing the web, or even window shopping. Instead of
going home and using a general web search to find that information,
Pensieve helps the brain recall those everyday things you might normally
forget.”
IBM
says today’s mobile devices have an endless number of functions that can
record data in real time. IBM’s new software blends techniques from image
processing, GPS information, smart clustering, optical character
recognition, speech recognition, and information retrieval to index and
tag the information.
Researchers at IBM’s Haifa Research Lab in Israel are pairing advanced
mobile technologies with memory cues to develop a system that can analyze
acquired data, create hooks to related experiences, and use them to
populate a person’s information management applications. Once the address
books and calendars are updated, the technology enables memory recall
triggered by time, location, or the introduction of related information.
For
example, if you meet someone at a conference and use your phone to take a
picture of him or her and another picture of that person's business card,
the new technology will associate the two pieces of data because they were
taken at the same time and location. It then creates a virtual briefcase
of data that includes the person’s image, the name of the conference where
you met, the date and time, and any other relevant data.
The
knowledge base is unique in its ability to integrate contextual
information with image, time, and location data. Prior to a future
meeting with the same person, you can be prompted by your calendar to
review your notes about that person, along with other facts you may have
recorded or items the system associated for you.
This
year, for the first time ever, more people in the world will have a mobile
phone than a land-line. Mobile phones already double as a music player,
video player, game device, and calendar. IBM recently launched a new
initiative to bring even more features and functions to the mobile phone.
Although using mobile phones to take photographs and record sound or video
bites is common practice, much of this data tends to get stored away on
the device with little information attached to it, rendering it of little
value for future use.
Many
people encounter situations where you have been introduced to someone but
you can’t quite recall how you know them. By simply typing the person’s
name into Pensieve, you can recall when and where you met them, and any
related information garnered at that time. You could even browse forwards
or backwards in time to find out what events transpired before or after
the initial meeting.
Another use of this technology is in reconstructing and sharing an
experience or memory. If enough media-rich data was collected about a
particular event, it can be used to build a more complex visual
associative representation of the experience.
“This is where the real power of collaboration kicks in,” said Eran
Belinsky, research team leader and a specialist in collaboration. “You can
recall the name of the person you met right before you entered a meeting
by traversing a timeline of your experiences, or share a business trip
with colleagues by creating a mashup that shows a map with an animation of
your trail and the pictures you took in every location.”
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