MNEMO

Snapshot Through Emotion

MNEMO is a concept for a system that can capture emotional changes and visually store these moments using a camera. The memory structure of the brain served as a model for the concept of the accompanying app, where the recordings are visualized.

Year
2014

Client
Master's thesis
3rd Semester

Partner
Martha Miosga
Hochschule für Gestaltung

Schwäbisch Gmünd 

Services
Research
UX Design
UI Design
Physical Computing
Invention Design

Challenge

Capturing emotional moments and experiences

Every day, people try to consciously capture unique and important moments in life. However, we believe that the most important memories are those we do not immediately perceive as such. So how can we distinguish these unconscious emotional moments from the conscious ones in life? How can we reduce the number of consciously captured images to enjoy the daily moments?

 “We are who we are because of what we learn and what we remember. Memory is the glue that holds our mental life together. It gives our life continuity."

Eric Kandel
Neuroscientist

Approach

Emotion serves as a natural filter

 During the design process, we identified the needs of stakeholders and the target group. We also conducted interviews with experts from fields like cognitive memory research, archiving, dementia research, and photography. We found that the human brain has a natural filter capable of differentiating important memories from trivial ones—this filter is our emotions. Emotional moments are more likely to be stored by the brain than neutral moments. Every emotional change is accompanied by a clearly identifiable physical reaction. These physiological patterns are measurable via pulse, heart rate, as well as skin conductivity and temperature. Additionally, all our memories are connected in a kind of network through three parameters: person, place, and time. We applied these natural factors to a technical recording system.

Result

Digital memory system

MNEMO is a combination of hardware and software components. The concept integrates insights from cognitive science, memory formation, and interaction design. It provides an innovative approach to documenting emotional moments and episodic experiences in a new way.

Hardware

The hardware consists of a sensor wristband wirelessly connected to an attachable camera. As soon as the sensors in the wristband detect an emotional change, the camera simultaneously creates a short three-second video. This timing corresponds to the brain's information processing. Additionally, other metadata, such as location, date, and specific people nearby, are stored. If the user wants to consciously capture an image, they can detach the camera from the holder and press the shutter button.

Software

The accompanying software links the recordings into a network and organizes them by location, time, person, and emotion. Thanks to an innovative three-axis navigation, the user can interact with the network and relive the memories. Additionally, images can be marked as favorites and tagged.