Liveblogging Life With the Wearable Vicon Revue Camera

Vicon Revue Dimensions:2.8 x 2.6 x 0.7 in. Weight: 3.3 oz. Memory: 2 GB (30,000 images) Price: $730 (est.; import) More Info: viconrevue.com Satoshi; Digital Imaging: Eric Heintz

Put the Vicon Revue around your neck, and you’ll never have to remember anything again. It sees what you do and automatically records it all. A wide-angle fisheye lens gives the camera a 120-degree view—the lion’s share of your field of vision. Its image processor takes shutter cues from five onboard sensors: light detector, thermometer, compass, accelerometer and infrared. When any (or several) of the sensors registers a change, the camera instantly kicks into rapid-fire mode, grabbing one frame per second until conditions settle. As you walk into a restaurant, for instance, the Revue responds to the dimmer light and air conditioning. (At rest, it takes one picture every 30 seconds.) It comes with computer software that can create a low-res, YouTube-ready video flipbook of your day from start to finish.

While the Revue makes it easy to share your every move, it has more-practical applications, too. Researchers have used the system, based on a Microsoft Research project, as a recall aid for people with Alzheimer’s or memory loss. Future versions could add more consumer-focused features such as face detection and GPS for geotagging.