Mark the date: WAHM 2016 on Sep. 12

After two successful events in 2014 and 2015, members of the RECALL project are organizing the third edition of the WAHM “Workshop on Ubiquitous Technologies for Augmenting the Human Mind“, which is going to take place at Ubicomp16 in Heidelberg, Germany.

As in previous years, WAHM2016 looks at the latest advances in technology (near-continuous data capture, almost unlimited data storage and algorithms for mining big data) and challenges participants to rethink the notion of memory augmentation. This year’s focus is on everyday use cases, trying to envision and exchange ideas on how ubiquitous technologies can be used to create applications for supporting human everyday life memories. At the intersection of technology and cognitive psychology, we plan to explore the integration of lifelogs in application layers, the utilization of e-memories, and new forms of memory aids.

Based on the submissions and discussion of the previous editions of this workshop, we have identified several challenges (more might of course emerge at the workshop):

  • Applied cognitive memory theories:
    How can lifelogs and ubiquitous technologies be used to re-enforce (or even attenuate) memories?
  • Harvesting existing data sources:
    How can the increasing number of commercial capture devices, as well as people’s shared experiences on social media, be used for personal lifelogs, or implicitly collected in order to support memory?
  • Attention awareness:
    How can lifelog information be used to recommend tasks throughout the day, schedule notifications and interruptions, or decide how densely information can be presented?
  • Designing knowledge acquisition points:
    How can the user interface be adjusted at the time of engagement so that information can be linked to existing memories or experiences?
  • Privacy and security:
    What are new challenges to privacy and security posed by private memory records, and how can these be protected from unauthorized access and tinkering, while developing flexible paradigms for sharing e-memories?
  • Commercial application areas for e-memories:
    While many of the application domains for memory technologies are targeting the public good, the same technologies can also be employed in a commercial context. For example, drawing information from lifelogs could be used to support a new form of advertising, in which products are linked to past experiences.

 We are also happy to announce that Dr. Lewis Chuang from the Max Plank Institute for Biological Cybernetics will give a keynote talk on how non-intrusive measurements (e.g. gaze tracking) can reveal attention limitation and task engagement – two important parameters of personal experiences that may offer rich application uses.

Visit the workshop home page at http://recall-fet.eu/wahm16/ for more information.

See you on September 12 at Ubicomp16 in Heidelberg, Germany.