News Munchies
The Face Is Familiar ...
Originally Posted
Updated
If you tend to forget names, getting acquainted with a crowd of strangers can be hell.
Technology may come to the rescue. Accenture Technology Labs is bandying around a neat little gadget -- well, it's a prototype, and right now, it's not really so little -- that remembers names. Now you'll be able to ask your Personal Awareness Assistant who you met at that party.
All you have to do is say, "Nice to meet you," and it perks up its electronic ears, churns a few silicon gray cells, traps a few electrons, and saves the last 10 seconds and next five seconds of conversation.
The rest of the time, it's recording a running 60 seconds of background noise and conversation. If you program, "Oh, that's interesting," or something similar, it knows to record a longer snippet. The sucker even uses GPS tracking to keep track of date, time, and location, so you have a context for the conversation.
The prototype will be miniaturized and may see the light of the marketplace in three years or so.
The privacy cops may howl, but they'll get over it. Anyway, what'd they do if you had a photographic memory? Tell you you only were allowed to remember part of the conversation?