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November 10, 2005
EARFob - Preliminary Thoughts
I am trying to wear an audio recording device for much of my days now (an Environmental Audio Recording or Everything Audio Recording or Environment Always Recording Fob, in anycase: EARFob). The original impetus was to see if I could log my day's activities from recorded ambient or persistent audio - detecting what room I am in from its acoustic signature, determining how much of my day is spent in conversation versus driving a car, etc. Some thinking behind this work began at Stanford's MediaX program and is described in this document. Also, Tripp Millican's work . While looking for funding to continue to pursue such signal processing efforts, I have found that wearing the EARPod is addictive. In particular I have found myself feeling naked when I do not have it on. My expreiences include:
a) feeling of security. It sounds silly, but I can speak out a license plate if a car looks suspicious. I like to have it when in meetings if there is ever a question of what I said (not what others said). It turns out that many LAPD police buy their own personal voice recorders (with their own funds) for later use in court to prove what was or was not said.
b) recording moments. As my mother ages and shares more of our family history, I can relax and listen more carefully, knowing that the dates and facts are being recorded for posterity. When my children say something amazing, I think about how I would love to be able to go back and listen to moments from my own childhood. These recorded moments are unconcious of the process of being recorded. The results can be as different from overt audio/video recording just as a candid photograph is different from a posed one.
c) I now realize just how misleading an audio-only recording can be. Indeed this has made me realize how misleading *any* recording is - including video with audio.
d) the amount of data is not as overwhelming as it seems. No I have not gone through much of it - but I now realize that there really are only a small number of 'high value' conversations. Intense bursts of conversations and/or insights that need to be captured.
e) the only analysis I now subject the data to is standard voice recognition. It only recognizes a small percentage of my words accurately, but it is enough for me to be able to remember the basic activities of the day (in terms of conversations).
f) I am starting to believe the day has come that it borders on irresponsible to neglect to record one's day - our children will look back on these years and say "oh what a waste that my parents did not record their lives".
Posted by mbolas at November 10, 2005 07:10 PM
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