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SenseCam, created by Microsoft's research facility in Cambridge, England, is a wearable digital camera that is designed take a low-resolution photo every 30 seconds while dangling  passively from its wearer.

Unlike a regular digital camera or a camera phone, SenseCam does not have a viewfinder or a display that can be used to frame photos. Instead, it is fitted with a wide-angle (fish-eye) lens that maximizes its field-of-view. This ensures that nearly everything in the wearer’s view is captured by the camera.

The SenseCam has received increasing attention in the medical field as an experimental tool to help those with memory problems, such as Alzheimer's disease. How memory works is still a medical mystery. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the University of Leeds in England have a research project underway using the SenseCam to study autobiographical memory, or how people remember events over their lifetime.

SenseCam also contains a number of different electronic sensors. These include light-intensity and light-color sensors, a passive infrared (body heat) detector, a temperature sensor, and a multiple-axis accelerometer. These sensors are monitored by the camera’s microprocessor, and certain changes in sensor readings can be used to automatically trigger a photograph to be taken.

A significant change in light level, or the detection of body heat in front of the camera can cause the camera to take a picture. Alternatively, the user may elect to set SenseCam to operate on a timer, for example taking a picture every 30 seconds.  Microsoft has also experimented with the incorporation of audio level detection, audio recording and GPS location sensing into SenseCam although these do not feature in the current hardware.

Users can opt to wear the camera on a cord around their neck, although it would also be possible to clip it to pockets or belts, or to attach it directly to clothing.

SenseCam holds 1Gb of flash memory, which can typically store over 30,000 images. The time-lapse, first-person-viewpoint sequences represent a useful media type that exists somewhere between still images and video that are used as memory supports rather than rich media.

Posted by Casey Kazan.

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Links:

http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/microsoft-sensecam-080115/
http://www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/post?__mode=edit_entry&id=44188900&blog_id=604253