IP: Continuous Personal Imaging device

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Subject: Continuous Personal Imaging device
> From: Steve Mann <mann () eecg toronto edu>
> To: clarkson () media mit edu (Brian Clarkson)
>
>
> > And if anyone else knows of work that is similar to this please let me 
> know.
> > So far I've gotten most of my inspiration from the conceptual art community
>
> My experience wearing camera systems at the Media Lab, especially when I
> went fulltime wearing continuously as a two year experiment from 1994
> to 1996 was considered conceptual art by some.  (First wearable camera
> at Media Lab, and first example of someone putting their personal life
> as video on the WWW).
>
> This was met with opposition by the co-author on your paper who called
> in Mitch Kapor, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation to try to
> resolve a standoff that had resulted.
>
> In a strange twist of events, Kapor felt that what I was doing was worthy
> of being done, and ultimately I prevailed in not being prevented from
> wearing it.
>
> I must give credit to Kapor for saving this work from being kept outside
> the Media Lab (I had been doing this work at home in previous years,
> and had planned to continue doing it that way).
>
> It is interesting that your paper makes no reference to this early research
> in lifelong videocapture, especially since your co-author was very aware
> (and even opposed to) the work.
>
> Many of these early systems were of a panoramic nature, capturing full
> 360 degree views in both video and radar.  See for example, Proceedings
> of the IEEE, Vol. 86, No. 11, describing a large body of work in the
> area of Intelligent Signal Processing systems for lifelong videocapture,
> not just for recording but also for Intelligent Signal Processing.
>
> One of my combined backpack-based and front-facing 360 degree camera systems
> called "shootingbackpack" contained five cameras and radar system, and
> was also exhibited at the List Visual Arts Center (LVAC) in the Media
> Lab building October 1997, and can be seen at
> http://wearcam.org/lvac/index.htm



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