ephemera: (noun) a short lived thing

June 19, 2003 10:39 PM

Ever since I became a TiVo addict, I've found myself wanting to use its features in real life, wishing I could rewind & replay moments of random comedy & chaos, usually involving my pugs. Soon, thanks the good folks at Deja View, I will be able to, with the help of a head mounted micro video camera unit that is always on, recording a 30 second buffer of real time, and up to four hours of manually recordable space for once you activate the record button. The scourge of ephemera will be wiped out in our lifetime.
posted by jonson (13 comments total)

In the War Photographer documentary film, there's footage recorded by a tiny digital camera attached at James Nachtwey's camera. it's a very interesting -- if slightly c reepy, in a Truman Show way, experiment

more on Nachtwey here
gallery here
and here

you can get the dvd for cheap at Amazon Deutschland (it's a zone 2, though, you'll need a multizone dvd player)
posted by matteo at 12:01 AM on June 20, 2003

Now, if only it had a rewind and erase function ...
posted by dg at 12:17 AM on June 20, 2003

ooh, I'll bet you can't wait to instant-replay a shot of yourself instant-replaying something on your television's TiVo.
posted by scarabic at 12:21 AM on June 20, 2003

It would be fun to watch instant replays of every living female on the planet looking at you pass by with disdain, pity and/or fear.
posted by Fofer at 12:30 AM on June 20, 2003

Well, it beats actually experiencing life directly.
posted by squirrel at 2:14 AM on June 20, 2003

Read The Artificial Kid by Bruce Sterling.
posted by substrate at 4:59 AM on June 20, 2003

I like the fact that they've attached it to super dorky glasses with the bar across the top for the product shots.
posted by andrewzipp at 6:20 AM on June 20, 2003

LifeLog is a DARPA program aimed at giving soldiers similar capabilities with the added functionality of storing the data in logical patterns and employing classification agents to interpret the data.
posted by topherbecker at 6:40 AM on June 20, 2003

Also see this recent and similar MeFi thread
posted by briank at 6:55 AM on June 20, 2003

"It would be fun to watch instant replays of every living female on the planet looking at you pass by with disdain, pity and/or fear.
posted by Fofer"
Fofer, you read my mind.
Sigh.
It's all I can do to forget my daily life as quickly as possible.
posted by Outlawyr at 7:02 AM on June 20, 2003

This device would've been useful when I was a kid and always getting in arguments with my folks about what they had and had not said.
posted by eustacescrubb at 7:06 AM on June 20, 2003

I've been thinking about something similar so I can sue the asshole who finally runs my bike off the road. 30 seconds ain't long enough, though.
posted by daver at 10:03 AM on June 20, 2003

I have a different use in mind: head/face mounted cameras on athletes. The US National Gymnastics Championships are going on this weekend (NBC, Sat/Sun, 2-4pm); a gymnast-eye view of routines would be incredible.

A trampolinist actually did something like this a while ago (while you're laughing at trampoline as a sport, download this video [2.8 MB] and check it out; it's much harder and cooler than you'd think). I don't remember the equipment he used, but the video made me dizzy.

And other sports could be really neat to watch from the athletes' perspectives: put a camera on Bode Miller's head for a giant slalom run, McLain Ward's head for a puissance jump-off (that's a 7'1" wall), Stacy Dragila's head for a pole vault.

Lots of possibilities, but then again, I keep thinking of Strange Days...
posted by swerve at 7:47 AM on June 21, 2003