Forget tying knots in your handkerchief 鈥� 鈥榤emory prostheses鈥� are just
around the corner. The devices will give out signals to jog your memory
at exactly the right time and place, and in the company of the right person.
Abigail Sellen and Mik Lamming of Rank Xerox in Cambridge are building
pager-like devices that communicate in the infrared waveband with other
transmitters, receivers and communication devices. As well as setting off
messages at preset times, the Xerox prostheses could also recognise people
you meet by communicating with their own pager, triggering special reminders
unique to that person. It could also remind you to do things in specific
rooms.
But for the memory jogger to be useful, the whole workplace would have
to be fitted with infrared receivers in strategic positions, and all employees
would have to wear them. As people go about their daily business, their
individual prostheses would record where they go and who they meet.
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Besides triggering reminders, the device could act as a 鈥榝ancy diary鈥�.
It could be reprogrammed, for example, to record times of phone calls, times
when faxes were sent, people you met and where you were, information that
users could call up with key words in order to help retrace mislaid documents,
for example.
鈥楾hese are active rather than passive reminder devices,鈥� says Lamming.
鈥楾hey have the ability to 鈥榢now鈥� where you are, or which communication 鈥榗ell鈥�
you鈥檙e in, and therefore, you can use them to determine the context as opposed
to the time that you expect a reminder.鈥�
He says that Xerox is working hard to make sure that the devices are
not abused in some form of 鈥楤ig Brother鈥� role. 鈥榃e are putting significant
amounts of effort into how to make them sufficiently private, mainly through
special encryption techniques unique to individuals,鈥� says Lamming. 鈥業f
people don鈥檛 think the devices are secure and free from abuse, they won鈥檛
use them.
