Abstract
For lifelogging, or the recording of one’s life history through digital means, to be successful, a range of separate multimodal mobile devices must be employed. These include smartphones such as the N95, the Microsoft SenseCam – a wearable passive photo capture device, or wearable biometric devices. Each collects a facet of the bigger picture, through, for example, personal digital photos, mobile messages and documents access history, but unfortunately, they operate independently and unaware of each other. This creates significant challenges for the practical application of these devices, the use and integration of their data and their operation by a user. In this chapter, authors discuss the software engineering challenges and their implications for individuals working on integration of data from multiple ubiquitous mobile devices drawing on experiences working with such technology over the past several years for the development of integrated personal lifelogs. The chapter serves as an engineering guide to those considering working in the domain of lifelogging and more generally to those working with multiple multimodal devices and integration of their data.
TopBackground
In his seminal work Vannevar Bush (Bush, 1945) conceived the notion of lifelogging as a device on which all a person’s personal information could be stored and from which it could then later be retrieved. Towards realizing this vision, Microsoft’s Gordon Bell (Bell, 2001) has invested both effort and time in the archival and digital capture of all of his personal data. His efforts and the initial focus for lifelogging technology emphasized desktop retrieval, e.g. (Dumais et al., 2003), however in more recent years equal importance has been placed on mobile access and capture (Mase et al., 2006). These technologies, and indeed the wealth of personal information they capture through mobile devices has been explored and exploited not just for personal use but across a range of domains. These have been outlined by Byrne et al (2008b), and include for example therapeutic and medical solutions (Berry et al., 2007; Hodges et al., 2006; Al Mahmud et al., 2008), the obvious use in reminiscence (McCarthy et al., 2007) and more diverse and playful applications (Wood et al 2004).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Lifelog: Digital archive of personal information, containing for example desktop activity, mobile activity, passively captured photos, explicitly captured photos.
Mobile Activity: Activity performed on mobile phone, e.g. SMSs sent and received, phone calls made, received and missed, web browsing.
Biometric Devices: Devices placed in direct contact with individual’s skin, to record skin conductivity which can be used to determine individual’s emotional state or arousal levels.
Passive Capture Media: Media capture triggered by sensors (e.g. motion, infrared) or a preset time interval.
Desktop Activity: Items accessed on personal computer such as word documents, emails, and web pages.
Explicitly Captured Media: Photos or other media explicitly captured by an individual.
Mobile Context: Individual’s current environment captured by mobile devices, e.g. geo-location, motion, light status, weather, people present.