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Software Backs Up Human Memory

Posted by timothy on from the where'd-I-put-my-pda dept.

CWmike writes "Ever try to remember who you bumped into at the store a few days back? Well, you're not alone. And IBM researchers are working on software that just may help you better recollect all the forgotten pieces of your life. This week, the company unveiled Pensieve, software that stores images, sounds, and text on everyday mobile devices, then allows the user extract them later on, to help them recall names, faces, conversations and events. IBM's project is akin to one that Gordon Bell and other scientists at Microsoft Research have been working on for the past nine years."

40 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Pensieve? by deft · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Did that have a meaning before harry potter, or did they have to license that?

    I mean, great name and visual from the books/movies, but a quick search only showed harry potter realted results, and dictionary.com didnt know it either.

    just curious.

    --

    There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
    1. Re:Pensieve? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Far be it from the summary to include a useful link: http://www.haifa.ibm.com/projects/imt/pensieve/

    2. Re:Pensieve? by jd · · Score: 3, Funny

      Dunno, but we now get to discover if fictional characters can sue IBM for patent infringement - assuming Dumbledore remembered to file.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    3. Re:Pensieve? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The adjective "pensive" has the meaning you stated.

      "Pensieve," I believe, is a portmanteau of "pensive" and "sieve" or filter.

    4. Re:Pensieve? by Inner_Child · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, "pensive" means "in a state of thinking". "Pensieve" is a fictional device for remembering things in the Harry Potter universe. The name is actually quite appropriate.

      --
      Today is red jello day - all workers must eat all of their red jello. Failure to comply will result in five demerits.
    5. Re:Pensieve? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      and a Pen Sieve is a device for sorting your big pens from your little pens.

    6. Re:Pensieve? by dintech · · Score: 2, Funny

      A happy grammar nazi? Could this be a world first?

    7. Re:Pensieve? by utnapistim · · Score: 3, Insightful

      err ... that would be Microsoft.

      --
      Tie two birds together: although they have four wings, they cannot fly. (The blind man)
  2. BAD IDEA! by ILuvRamen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The human memory works by really, really remembering things that are deemed important by you at the time. If you know you can just save everyone's name and photo to a device, it'll get marked as don't remember. And then the device gets stolen or breaks and you didn't back it up and suddenly you're an amnesiac lol.

    --
    Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
    1. Re:BAD IDEA! by ShakaUVM · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's true.

      While some people claim this is evidence that computers are making us stupid (or stupid-er), the way the brain works, if it knows something is being held somewhere else, it doesn't bother to remember it. I've looked at my fiancee's phone number thousands of times since we started dating 7 years ago, and all I remember is that it has like an 8 in it. (Uh, maybe 2 8's? And theres a 6 in there somewhere?). It kind of pissed her off, but I said, "Hey, that's what cell phones are for!" Didn't fly so well though.

      The brain actually can incorporate external objects into its sense of self. In this sense, a PDA, computer, or, (shudder) Wikipedia becomes a form of external memory. And you're precisely right - losing these things (as I did with a PDA once) does make a person feel precisely like an amnesiac.

      It's also why I think that people in olden times had less trouble memorizing stuff like the Illiad than we do. (Another part was that it rhymed, and could be set to music, which also greatly help -- have you ever thought about how many thousands of song lyrics are stuck in your head?)

      Anyhow, I don't think it necessarily makes us stupider, as long as we're able to think and reason on our feet. As long as own brains have cached the most important information, who cares if we have to reference the internet to figure out what year the Dawes Act was signed?

      (I'm most amused by the name, as it's obvious someone at IBM is a Harry Potter fan.)

    2. Re:BAD IDEA! by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If you want clinical studies on this look up the work done by Prof. Steve Mann at the University of Toronto. He has been a "cyborg" for years now. One of the co inventors of the Wearable computer (Thad Starner was the original inventor, Steve worked with him and went a different direction with it) Steve has several system in place that will pull up info on people, bring up reminders, and gps tag memories.

      Not too long ago he unplugged himself and discovered that he had created a HUGE reliance on the technology, causing a large number of problems.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    3. Re:BAD IDEA! by foobsr · · Score: 2, Funny

      And then the device gets stolen or breaks ...

      More likely, it will be taken by your DHS to fight 'global terrorism'.

      CC.

      --
      TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
  3. good advice by deft · · Score: 4, Funny

    good advice!

    ill put that in my palm pilot notes right now.

    --

    There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
  4. Uh by inKubus · · Score: 3, Funny

    What were we JUST talking about?

    --
    Cool! Amazing Toys.
  5. Backup for Human Memory? by Jager+Dave · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This was invented awhile ago... it's called a legal pad.

  6. Hah by QuoteMstr · · Score: 5, Funny

    If only that were the case at the bar. This happens far, far too often. I'd love some kind of memory aid.

    [talking to hot woman]
    Me: "Hey. So, you're a biology nut and read Neal Stephanson in your spare time? Hey, what's your name?"
    Her: "Alice, and you are?"
    Me: "Dan. So, can you hold on a minute? I've got to run to the bathroom."

    [thinking]
    "Must remember name is Alice"
    "Must remember name is Alice"
    "Must remember name is Alice"
    "Must remember name is Alice" ...
    "Must remember name is Alice"

    [comes back]
    Me: "So, Emily how are you doing?"
    Her: "Uhm, I'm Alice."

    *crap*

    1. Re:Hah by gregbot9000 · · Score: 2, Funny

      [talking to hot woman]
      Me: "Hey. So, you're a biology nut and read Neal Stephanson in your spare time? Hey, what's your name?"
      Her: "Alice, and you are?"
      Me: "Greg. So, how long since you become a woman?"
      Her: "Three months."
      Me: "post op or pre-op?"
      Seriously I mean no disrespect to women. Though I doubt any will actually read this.

  7. RD: Body Swap by jaminJay · · Score: 2, Funny

    LISTER: (upon seeing a large needle that KRYTEN just removed the air from) Kryten, what's that for?
    KRYTEN: It's a mental emetic.
    LISTER: A what?
    KRYTEN: A mind enema -- so we can flush out your brain.
    LISTER: Nobody's flush'n out my brain.
    KRYTEN: We'll transfer it back afterwards.
    LISTER: You are not sticking that thing in my head.

    --
    Leela: "Is all the work done by children?" Alien: "No, not the whipping."
  8. Order of operations by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 5, Funny

    You want to take the crap before you come back from the bathroom.

    --
    Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
    1. Re:Order of operations by QuoteMstr · · Score: 5, Funny

      So, all this time, my dating problems have been a race condition?

    2. Re:Order of operations by MadKeithV · · Score: 5, Funny

      { insert lame joke about racism here }

    3. Re:Order of operations by Spokehedz · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wow... I bet that XKCD will have a blag about that soon.

  9. Exactly what we don't need by MeditationSensation · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I feel like with the advent of Google, Wikipedia, searching my old Gmail messages... it's been easier than ever for me to not remember things. Remember how ancient people used to memorize huge poems and religious texts? Granted, a lot of this relied on mnemonics and repetitive passages, but I can't help but feel modern human memory is poor compared to the way it used to be.

    1. Re:Exactly what we don't need by Yold · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There is a hell of a lot more stuff to know. In ancient Africa there were people who recorded the oral traditions of their culture with songs. That was there job. People still memorize the Quran, front-to-back, in fact it is all that is taught in some schools. A few people had the job of memorizing considerable amounts of information, while others toiled in the fields.

      We are a hell of a lot more educated than any generation before us. It's common for people to spend 16-20 years in school. You'd be middle aged about 300 years ago by the time you were entering the work force.

      I think that any college educated person has the same amount of information in their brain as someone who recored a hundred hours of oral history and song.

  10. No thanks by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll stick to my system of polaroids and tattoos

    1. Re:No thanks by gregbot9000 · · Score: 5, Funny

      How do you keep someone with no memory busy? Refresh for answer.

  11. Just what we need by kissaki · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Technology reinforcing the illusion of identity.

  12. software agents by VoidEngineer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Reminds me of the software agents that Manfred Macx uses in the book accelerando. Excellent read, by the way, if you haven't already.

  13. Re:More spying? by naglep · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if they will be offering ads and related links we might find interesting aka Google MemoryAds??

  14. Wouldn't it just be easier to tell the truth.. by sleeponthemic · · Score: 2, Funny

    And call it "A cure for marijuana".

    --
    I record my sleeptalking
  15. The Only Problem... by eulernet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, we can now backup our memory.

    But how do we restore it ?

  16. If can help remember ... by houghi · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... can it also help forget, because I have seen two girls and a cup and things that have been seen can not be unseen (for now).

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  17. Sounds like something I did by MarkByers · · Score: 5, Funny

    I worked on a very similar project but now I can't remember what it's called.

    --
    I'll probably be modded down for this...
  18. RTFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just got something: It's "Read The Featured Article". I thought It was somthing else... Someone should really write these things out occasionally. My opinion of slashdotters everywhere has risen slightly. Consequently, opinions of me may lower... But I don't care what the world thinks of mw. FTW!

  19. And how much are they paying J.K. Rowling? by NoobixCube · · Score: 3, Informative

    The "pensieve" is a stone bowl that the user can put their memories in for viewing later, and was used to reveal some important plot points.

    --
    Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
  20. Re:Well, memory isn't really a problem by Kaeles · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm not so sure about that, in the research I've done in psychology, most of the evidence points to forgetting at LEAST 50% of what you've seen/studied in a day unless you repeat it several times. This is why its so important to write, speak, and look at things when you are studying. It also helps to visualize putting things in "rooms" in your "brain house". That way the memories are organized and made to seem more important. The more important something seems, the more likely you will remember it.

  21. hmmm. by apodyopsis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I cannot help thinking that controlling governments and lawyers would love us all to have something like this.

    "according to you pensieve black box you were at the location of the crime at the time of the crime!"
    "oh futz!"

  22. Software Backs Up Human Memory by TuringTest · · Score: 3, Funny

    CWmike writes "Ever try to remember who you bumped into at the store a few days back? Well, you're not alone. And IBM researchers are working on software that just may help you better recollect all the forgotten pieces of your life. This week, the company unveiled Pensieve, software that stores images, sounds, and text on everyday mobile devices, then allows the user extract them later on, to help them recall names, faces, conversations and events. IBM's project is akin to one that Gordon Bell and other scientists at Microsoft Research have been working on for the past nine years."

    --
    Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
  23. Numbers are easy... by denzacar · · Score: 3, Funny

    Look at your slashdot ID. 157947 can be written as 1 - 57 - 9 - 47. Its all downhill from there.
    47 is easy if you are a Star Trek or a Hitman fan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/47_(number)
    9+1 are 10. Which is how much you need to add (as you are going downhill, or backwards) to 47 to get the SECOND PAIR of numbers.

    Or you can start at 15, the first 2 digits, divide it in half like they are integers and get the 7, add 2 and get 9, add the 2's you used so far to get 4, and either subtract that 2 you added to the 9 earlier to get the final 7 or just remember that 1337 starts with 1 and ends with 7.

    Yeah... I know... I've been confusing people with my number mnemonics for years.

    I've looked at my fiancee's phone number thousands of times since we started dating 7 years ago, and all I remember is that it has like an 8 in it.

    Or, why don't you try spelling it?

    Or use some other mnemonic

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  24. Why unplug? Charlie Stross saw this in Accelerando by argent · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have a huge reliance on my PDA, which has had a huge effect on handling my organizational issues. So should I go back to being as disorganized as I used to be, instead of being the guy who does the organization? I'm just as dependent on my PDA as Steve Mann was on his Wearcam. If you use a cellphone or an addess book or a paper organizer, well, you have the same problem. This isn't a new problem, it's not a high tech problem, I'm sure Himuralabima of Babylon would have found himself just as lost without his clay tablets and stylus as I would without my PDA and stylus... heck, my PDA is almost exactly the same size and shape as his clay tablets.

    In Charlie Stross's Accelerando, in Chapter 3, Manfred Manx loses his wearable and the result is, well, not good for a while. But all ends well...

    Refusing to use a tool because you'll become dependent on it is only a problem if you plan on stopping using it. Steve Mann decided he was engaged in an experiment. For some of us, electronic memory aids from PDAs and Google on up are a lifestyle, not an experiment.