MyLifeBits was alife-logging experiment begun in 2001.[1] It is aMicrosoft Research project inspired byVannevar Bush's hypotheticalMemex computer system. The project includesfull-text search, text and audio annotations, and hyperlinks. The "experimental subject" of the project was computer scientistGordon Bell, and the project tried to collect a lifetime of storage on and about Bell. Jim Gemmell of Microsoft Research and Roger Lueder were the architects and creators of the system and its software.
MyLifeBits is an attempt to fulfillVannevar Bush's vision of an automated store of the documents, pictures (including those taken automatically), and sounds an individual has experienced in his lifetime, to be accessed with speed and ease. For this, Belldigitized all documents he had read or produced, CDs, emails, and so on. He continued to do so through his death in 2024, gathering web pages browsed, phone and instant messaging conversations and the like more or less automatically. The bookTotal Recall describes the vision and implications for a personal, lifetime e-memory for recall, work, health, education, and immortality.[2]In 2010,Total Recall was published in paperback.[3] As of 2016[update], Bell was no longer using thewearable camera associated with the project. He described the rise of thesmartphone as largely fulfilling Bush's vision of the Memex.[4] Bell died in 2024.[5]
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