A handful of researchers are documenting all their conversations, movements, ideas, and correspondence through audio recorders, digital cameras, GPS trackers, pedometers, brain scanners, and other gadgets. The data they collect are mainly fodder for research, but they also predict that in the future everyone is going to be “lifelogging” — continually recording images from their vacations, conversations from business meetings, and even intimate confessions to friends.
As they push into a future that is totally on the record, lifeloggers are also pondering and fretting over how the technology will alter society. What can lifelogging do for us? Could it improve scholarship? What are the legal risks? And how will lifelogging affect personal relationships, private conversations, and family histories?
The Chronicle‘s Scott Carlson wanted to find out for himself, so he went to an electronics store and bought a digital voice recorder for $100. Read the full story, and listen to an interview with the author as he discusses his experience with lifelogging.
