Capturing a perfect moment
We've all been there. That perfect moment that you want to last forever. Maybe it is a sunset and a lover watching it with you. Maybe it is a child's first steps, a box of puppies on a sunny day, or a steelhead taking the hook at your favorite fishing hole. Maybe it is hearing an old song in a new way at a rock concert. Maybe it is simply standing inside a cathedral as clouds move across the sun and fill the nave with a shifting kaleidescope through the stained glass...
Whatever that perfect moment is, you know it when it happens and you know you will never be able to capture it in a way you could share it with others or (most sadly of all) with your own future self. Yet it is a very human thing to try -- from cave paintings to HD cameras, we have applied technology to the problem with varying degrees of success.
And yet, in most cases the best we can do is to capture a memento of that perfect moment; the personal equivalent of a snow globe from Las Vegas. Often little more than something to jog our own memory and almost never enough to put another person into the same space we inhabited right then. This is why we love to show our vacation pictures and others find them so boring.
(Interestingly, we have focused largely on visual representations as mementos despite the fact memory is tied more strongly to the sense of smell. Recent research indicates that you can even force the loss of long term memory in rats via blocking a brain enzyme related to olfactory processing.)
Of course, to some extent the quality of our mementos is dependent on the person making it. There is a definite artistic component involved, whether the person is sketching with charcoal or taking a photograph. If someone is good enough with a particular medium they can bring us, more or less, into that perfect moment. If the artist is truly good we invoke our imagination, suspend our belief in our current reality and, (almost magically) we inhabit that moment in a way that transcends the limitations of the medium. But, like all art, this response is personal and only works for those attuned to it. The next person to look at the painting or watch the movie in question may have a different, and less moving, experience.
Still technology marches on and that which was only available to the rich becomes a tool of the masses. We are rapidly approaching the moment when half the planet will carry a camera-equipped cell phone in their pocket. The quality and quantity of mementos produced increases even if the people making them lack the skill and perceptions of the true artist. We saw the first step in this evolution with the Brownie camera and now we have easily affordable HD camcorders and panoramic cameras.
Recently we entered into Steam Engine Time for the technology of creating mementos: The tools have reached a cusp point. Everything required is there to enable anyone to capture a moment in a way that makes inhabiting that perfect moment anytime in the future a better quality experience than the best great artists can accomplish with the mediums currently at their disposal. All it takes is a little integration work.
I could create this technology myself. Give me six months, an electrical engineer, and four other programmers and I could demo a consumer device that represents the first stage of this new memento technology. Give me twenty programmers and another year and I could give you the second stage. The third, and final, stage requires some technology that isn't ready for prime time, but is getting there.
And, if I can think of this thing, most likely someone else, smarter and better funded that I, has as well. Somewhere in the world engineers are already working to make this new device a reality. What will the first version look like?
There would be a base unit. It might look like a pole on a conical stand or it might be something you can mount on a camera tripod. Besides the base unit there will be at least three, and possibly more, satellite units that look much like the base unit, only smaller. At the top of each unit will be a rotating camera and a stereo microphone. To use it you will place the base unit in the center of the place you want to record and scatter the satellite units around at some distance to record the same scene from other angles.
That's pretty much it, other than some software to integrate the results. When activated the device would establish the exact positions of all its units and then scan its surroundings for a short period of time. The results would be fed into the integration software and the end result would be a looping 3D animation of the place and time you wanted to record. If the software (or the person operating it) was really good, and the recorded scene supported it, you could even make the loop seamless to the extent that it would be difficult to tell when the loop reached its end and started over. When replaying it you could 'walk' around the recorded space and time in any way you liked, inspecting many details and hearing the ambient sounds as if you were actually there. Yes, it would be on a computer screen. But it would be amazingly detailed and lifelike, barring some artifacts introduced by the recording process and the software.
How can this be? Converting photographs into 3D models is nothing new, but recent improvements in visualization software have enabled a whole new landscape of possibilities. As I said, all the other pieces (panoramic cameras, 3D rendering, virtual environments) already exist; all it takes is putting it together.
And this is just the first stage. The second stage will do the same thing without the satellite units or by automatically deployed satellites (perhaps autonomous remote units the size of flies) and the results will have much higher definition than the first stage. Moving elements like humans, animals, and machines will be rendered with much more precision and detail. The playback technology will improve as well, possibly via head mounted displays.
The third stage? Just improve the second stage incrementally and add the ability to record smells as well.
Like any medium, this new one will work best in the hands of the true artist. But even the most thumb-fingered individual will be able to record amazingly lifelike representations of a child hitting their first home run. It will enable new arts as well; interactive 'movies' may finally enter into the mainstream. Websites could host the scenes to allow a form of virtual tourism. Places that do not exist or that cannot be reached may be rendered by artists so that we can enjoy a concert in fairy-land or stroll on the surface of the sun.
The only downside is the distinct possibility that experiencing something with all this detail may not be anywhere as good as simply remembering it from behind a filter of years...
Whatever that perfect moment is, you know it when it happens and you know you will never be able to capture it in a way you could share it with others or (most sadly of all) with your own future self. Yet it is a very human thing to try -- from cave paintings to HD cameras, we have applied technology to the problem with varying degrees of success.
And yet, in most cases the best we can do is to capture a memento of that perfect moment; the personal equivalent of a snow globe from Las Vegas. Often little more than something to jog our own memory and almost never enough to put another person into the same space we inhabited right then. This is why we love to show our vacation pictures and others find them so boring.
(Interestingly, we have focused largely on visual representations as mementos despite the fact memory is tied more strongly to the sense of smell. Recent research indicates that you can even force the loss of long term memory in rats via blocking a brain enzyme related to olfactory processing.)
Of course, to some extent the quality of our mementos is dependent on the person making it. There is a definite artistic component involved, whether the person is sketching with charcoal or taking a photograph. If someone is good enough with a particular medium they can bring us, more or less, into that perfect moment. If the artist is truly good we invoke our imagination, suspend our belief in our current reality and, (almost magically) we inhabit that moment in a way that transcends the limitations of the medium. But, like all art, this response is personal and only works for those attuned to it. The next person to look at the painting or watch the movie in question may have a different, and less moving, experience.
Still technology marches on and that which was only available to the rich becomes a tool of the masses. We are rapidly approaching the moment when half the planet will carry a camera-equipped cell phone in their pocket. The quality and quantity of mementos produced increases even if the people making them lack the skill and perceptions of the true artist. We saw the first step in this evolution with the Brownie camera and now we have easily affordable HD camcorders and panoramic cameras.
Recently we entered into Steam Engine Time for the technology of creating mementos: The tools have reached a cusp point. Everything required is there to enable anyone to capture a moment in a way that makes inhabiting that perfect moment anytime in the future a better quality experience than the best great artists can accomplish with the mediums currently at their disposal. All it takes is a little integration work.
I could create this technology myself. Give me six months, an electrical engineer, and four other programmers and I could demo a consumer device that represents the first stage of this new memento technology. Give me twenty programmers and another year and I could give you the second stage. The third, and final, stage requires some technology that isn't ready for prime time, but is getting there.
And, if I can think of this thing, most likely someone else, smarter and better funded that I, has as well. Somewhere in the world engineers are already working to make this new device a reality. What will the first version look like?
There would be a base unit. It might look like a pole on a conical stand or it might be something you can mount on a camera tripod. Besides the base unit there will be at least three, and possibly more, satellite units that look much like the base unit, only smaller. At the top of each unit will be a rotating camera and a stereo microphone. To use it you will place the base unit in the center of the place you want to record and scatter the satellite units around at some distance to record the same scene from other angles.
That's pretty much it, other than some software to integrate the results. When activated the device would establish the exact positions of all its units and then scan its surroundings for a short period of time. The results would be fed into the integration software and the end result would be a looping 3D animation of the place and time you wanted to record. If the software (or the person operating it) was really good, and the recorded scene supported it, you could even make the loop seamless to the extent that it would be difficult to tell when the loop reached its end and started over. When replaying it you could 'walk' around the recorded space and time in any way you liked, inspecting many details and hearing the ambient sounds as if you were actually there. Yes, it would be on a computer screen. But it would be amazingly detailed and lifelike, barring some artifacts introduced by the recording process and the software.
How can this be? Converting photographs into 3D models is nothing new, but recent improvements in visualization software have enabled a whole new landscape of possibilities. As I said, all the other pieces (panoramic cameras, 3D rendering, virtual environments) already exist; all it takes is putting it together.
And this is just the first stage. The second stage will do the same thing without the satellite units or by automatically deployed satellites (perhaps autonomous remote units the size of flies) and the results will have much higher definition than the first stage. Moving elements like humans, animals, and machines will be rendered with much more precision and detail. The playback technology will improve as well, possibly via head mounted displays.
The third stage? Just improve the second stage incrementally and add the ability to record smells as well.
Like any medium, this new one will work best in the hands of the true artist. But even the most thumb-fingered individual will be able to record amazingly lifelike representations of a child hitting their first home run. It will enable new arts as well; interactive 'movies' may finally enter into the mainstream. Websites could host the scenes to allow a form of virtual tourism. Places that do not exist or that cannot be reached may be rendered by artists so that we can enjoy a concert in fairy-land or stroll on the surface of the sun.
The only downside is the distinct possibility that experiencing something with all this detail may not be anywhere as good as simply remembering it from behind a filter of years...