Memory reloaded: Google may store real-life experiences, make them searchable

Google has outlined a method for recording video using a camera mounted on a wearable Google Glass, which could be searched at a later date

The impact of Google in today’s life is quite big. Such is its presence in our lives that it seems difficult to imagine how knowledge dissemination was done in the pre-Google era. Apart from its popular search tools, Google is widely known for its operating system, desktop/mobile applications, hardware, security tools and map-related products, among many others.
 

But the next thing that this technology powerhouse is planning to bring out is something that might change the way we remember things. Each of us does a lot of things in his or her life; it might not be possible to list those out at one go, given the limitations of human memory.
 

To address that constraint of our lives, Google is preparing the next version of its head-mounted Glass wearable that could make forgetting a thing of the past.
 

The company had earlier this year discontinued the production of Google Glass, the wearable smart glasses featuring web-connected video screens, but the company had insisted it remained committed to the idea and would release a new version “when they are ready”.
 

“As we look to the road ahead, we realise that we’ve outgrown the lab and so we’re officially ‘graduating’ from Google[x] to be our own team here at Google,” the company had said. “In the meantime, we’re continuing to build for the future, and you’ll start to see future versions of Glass when they’re ready.”
 

According to a Quartz report, in an awarded patent Google has now outlined a method for recording video using a camera mounted on a wearable Google Glass; that video could be searched at a later date. In the patent, the wearable would send its video to a user’s paired phone, which would in turn send the video to a server. A user could then head to an online repository to check all recordings on the cloud, and use keywords to search specific instances. It would essentially be like exporting one’s memories to the cloud.
 

Recordings will be tagged by time and location, and those could start automatically if the wearable detects the user is at a popular location or places the user has set to always record from. The patent even suggests that the technology could be used by security forces. As the report mentions, it could essentially turn everyone wearing Glass into a walking CCTV camera. And, videos could also be shared to social networks.
 

“Who were the models I saw on the ramp in Mumbai?” or “How many cover drives I struck in my practice cricket match in January?” could be the questions the user might ask to search videos.
 

While there’s no surety that Google will indeed turn this idea into reality, if it eventually does, searching your own real-life videos using keywords — in this age of smartphones — will keep us glued to our handsets for some more time.