Google has been awarded a patent which would allow us to search through a video database of our lives, all recorded through Google Glass or some future wearable technology. While it sounds like something out of science fiction, the method behind it is scarily simple.
Much in the same way that Google Glass records the world around us from our perspective, the patent would allow a far more advanced version of the technology to record huge chunks of our lives.
The video would then be sent to your smartphone and uploaded to the cloud upon which you’d be able to use voice control to search back through the library and ‘recall’ past memories.
While the principle method behind this is already technically possible, the only limiting factor is the way in which we would record our memories. Google Glass famously came under heavy criticism for the fact that it had a camera which, with little indication, could record small snippets of what was going on around it.
Now back in the developmental stages, Google is trying to find a way in which it can turn the smartglasses into a product that’s as forward-thinking as it is morally trustworthy. The implications that come with being able to record your own life are enormous, not least the emotional impact it would have on yourself.
Whether you agree with what the patent proposes or not, the fact remains that there are some technological hurdles that need to be overcome. Recording the footage requires ultra-small optics, as well as a storage device that’s both big enough and portable enough to contain an entire day’s worth of footage.
Then again there is always the possibility of streaming it directly to Google’s cloud servers, where it would be saved. Companies (including Google) are already working on contact lenses that could give us ‘superhuman sight’ and as optics and circuitry get smaller it is seemingly just a matter of time.