Blogging. Lifestreaming. What's next: Lifelogging!

A friend of mine named Steve Rubel is at the forefront of a widespread public exploration of the possibilities of lifestreaming. He and others prefer Posterous. I have a Posterous account myself but use it only for posting iPhone pictures to Twitter. All I have to do is take a picture, then e-mail it to the address assigned to my account by Posterous. The service then posts a link to the picture on Twitter. You can post a wide range of media on Posterous, but so far I use it mainly for pictures.

I've been thinking about posting a lot more on Posterous. But I tend to forget. Lifestreaming only happens when you work at it. And that's where lifelogging comes in.

The definition of lifelogging has evolved over the years. It started out as a science-fiction-like lifestyle experiment to transmit live, first-person vantage-point video all day, every day. Think The Truman Show, the story of a man who discovered that his life was being broadcast around the world at every moment. But now it means all kind of things.

I'd like to propose a simplified definition: Lifelogging is automated lifestreaming. That means whatever experiences you'd like to share or record, you simply turn it on and the sharing or recording happens by itself.

Buy your own 'SenseCam'

BusinessWeek published a nice article on Bell and his MyLifeBits project and new book last month. The article was accompanied by a video that included footage from Bell's own SenseCam. The reporter in the video said: "Maybe you'd like to wear one of those SenseCams around your neck. But you can't have one. Those are custom-made."

That was true when he said it, but soon it won't be. A U.K.-based company called ViconRevue is transforming Bell's Microsoft-developed SenseCam into a consumer product.

The public version will have an adjustable frequency of automated photos, with a minimum of one every 30 seconds. It also will use an accelerometer (the kind used in cell phones like the iPhone) and light sensors to figure out when you're in a new environment -- say, when you walk into a restaurant -- and snap a picture at that moment. It will even have a heat sensor to detect when someone is standing in front of you, to make sure they get their picture taken.

The device has 1GB of storage that reportedly holds 30,000 pictures.

An $820 version of the camera for researchers will go on sale this year. The company plans a consumer version for release sometime next year at a yet-unspecified price.

I recommend that you visit the company's Web site and add your e-mail address to their update list. They'll tell you when and where you can buy the camera when that information becomes available.