One of the founders of Memoto, Martin
Kaellstroem, lost both of his parents to cancer when he was a young adult. When this happened, he was inspired to create
a camera that would spontaneously capture the user’s life as it is being
lived. This small “life-logging camera”
is worn either clipped to your shirt collar, or around your neck on a
string. Every 30 seconds, a picture is
taken and there is no off button.
Essentially, it captures every ½ minute of a person’s life
.
Now in his late 30s, Mr. Kaellstroem
has said, “When you lose your parents, you realize that you don’t live
forever. It definitely affected me in my
entrepreneurship. I can’t wait until
later to fulfill my dreams; I have to live my dream now.” He states that
normally, people bring their cameras to special events to capture those around
them at their best. He stated, “You
don’t know in advance which moments will be important in the future. Perhaps you meet your future wife or witness
an accident or a crime. These are
pictures you might want to return to.”
But, will everyone accept that they will be filmed whenever they are
with a user of a life-logging camera?
This brings “Big Brother” and “The
Truman Show” to life. Mr. Kaellstroem
doesn’t see his camera as a breach to anyone’s privacy; he sees it as a
collection of memories. Personally, I
don’t see it that way. I would not want
to meet friends for lunch knowing that one of them is using a life-logging
camera. I’m a fairly private person and
I wouldn’t like knowing that someone has pictures of every 30 seconds of me as
I sat down with them for lunch or dinner.
It’s not that I have something to hide; it’s just that I don’t like
having my picture taken. To know that a
picture would be taken every 30 seconds would not make me happy at all.
This life-logging camera looks like an
iPod mini and gathers pictures automatically.
They are sorted by GPS location, time and lighting. Anyone using this camera can share the pictures
on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media. Oskar Kalmaru, who is co-founder of Memoto,
likens the camera to a diary for those who are tech-savvy and who don’t have
the patience or discipline it takes to keep a written diary. He says, “I’ve failed several times when
trying to write a blog or travelogue.
Older relatives managed to keep a diary over 20 years, but it’s hard
with the routine.”
