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Thursday, 31 October 2013
Researchers have developed a wearable camera that starts recording when it detects that you are interested in what you are seeing.
The neurocam, developed by Tokyo-based company Neurowear, incorporates sensors that detect electrical activity in the wearer's brain.
Depending on how much activity is detected, the user's interest level in what they're observing is assigned a numerical value from 1 to 100.
Any time that number exceeds 60, a 5-second Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) animated clip is recorded, capturing whatever happens to be in the forward-facing camera's line of sight, 'Gizmag' reported.
Those clips are date- and location-stamped, and stored in a video album for subsequent review.
A manual mode is also accessible, for those times when users want to record footage of things that they themselves are not all that excited about.
In its current prototype form, the neurocam uses an integrated smartphone as its brains, storage medium, and camera.
In order to get the iPhone camera to eye-view, the smartphone connects to a headband which houses the brainwave sensor.
Sideways on, the camera sensor then faces through a prism so it's
looking at what you're looking at and not just the inside of your ear.
The experimental wearable, barring the smartphone hanging off, looks
pretty similar to other brainwave reading wearables, although the
addition of an iPhone will certainly make it weightier in comparison.
It is hoped that a less gawky production version of the device would incorporate its own custom electronics.