In the Future: Total Recall Glasses for the Absent-Minded and Forgetful

[papau]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAAGAEKKND.html

In the Future: Total Recall Glasses for the Absent-Minded and Forgetful
By Theo Emery Associated Press Writer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - When Richard W. DeVaul sits down to his computer, he sometimes forgets to eat for hours at a time. Names slip his mind at cocktail parties and he mixes up the faces of people he knows well.

A string on the finger might have been a solution in the past, but the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student is testing a more modern lifeline for people who fumble for names, leave the stove on, or forget to call Mom on her birthday.

DeVaul's "memory glasses" are a tiny computer display clipped onto eyeglass frames and wired to a lightweight computer that can flash reminders to the wearer, without, he hopes, distraction or interference with day-to-day activities. <snip>

DeVaul conducted a study with 28 people in which he says subliminal cueing substantially increased their ability to recall names associated with faces. His peer-reviewed findings were presented last month at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers in White Plains, N.Y., which Narayanaswami helped organize.

The memory glasses are largely hypothetical at this point. The technology depends on MIThril's becoming practical to wear outside the lab, creating software that would cue the user at the right time with the right information, and establishing that subliminal cueing actually works. <snip>