Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

26 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    5. 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. 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*

  7. 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 }

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

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

    Technology reinforcing the illusion of identity.

  11. 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.

  12. The Only Problem... by eulernet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, we can now backup our memory.

    But how do we restore it ?

  13. 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...
  14. 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
  15. 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.
  16. 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