Why Audio only?

There are many reasons we feel that audio is better.

• A wearable video currently is fairly low quality and fails in poor light conditions. This distracts from your "reliving it" experience.
• The audio recorder can be more discrete when worn.
• People feel recording video continuously is more intrusive during some activities.
• Audio is fantastic for triggering your brain to recall memory. Watching a grainy video causes the brain to focus on the quality of picture and distracts from the memory.

How much space is needed?

A full recording day (continuously for 12-16 hours) will produce around 330-440MB of data. Most people will record 15GB per month. Terrabyte hard-drives are very cheap and EckoIt provides a way to actively use both a local hard drive and a usb expansion drive.

 

Legal questions about recording

We do not provide legal advice around the use of audio recording. Please respect your regional laws. What we do believe is that what you hear is yours. Just because our brains are a little soft does not mean we should forget what we have experienced. In most places, in public there is no expectation of privacy. In private settings you may wish to inform people that you are recording. We have found that people are accepting and will soon accept it as normal. We hope that people do not use this technology as a way to litigate others or generally be bad. Liferecording should be between you and you memory.

That being said, there is much talk that this would be useful in oppressive societies. People with restricted rights may find it helpful as a line of defense.

 

Is the data encrypted?

The default mode is not encrypted. If you would like higher security because people are out to get you, do the following: use TrueCrypt to encrypt the drive that EckoIt uses. We have successfully tested TrueCrypt with Ecko-It and found no issues. We will provide a tutorial shortly.

 

What information do you collect or send to third parties?

We gather only information to process any orders you place with us. The EckoIt application collects no information that is shared with us or other companies.

During the running of the application it may connect with the internet to do the following:

• Download ffmpeg if you choose to use the library.
• Connect to ecko-it.couchone.com to download in initial structure for the database.
• Use bitpixels.com to load thumbnails of sites you have bookmarked.
• Load information from twitter if you have requested it for a topic.
• Load information from freebase if you have requested it for a topic.

We feel that your sensitive data is safe.

 

Why are you re-purposing Sansa Clips?

As a small startup and this is the most feasible way to allow people the experience of Liferecording. As people discover what Liferecording provides there will be considertaion given to making a more purpose designed piece of hardware with more features.

 

Why are you showing people how to build their own Liferecorder?

Two reasons. The first we are trying to be a new breed of company that is open with our customers. We believe that there will be some who will want to customize the Clip on their own. But most people will just want to purchase a pre-built one. We hope people will also choose to donate to us through Paypal if they feel they are getting benefit from our software. The second reason is we have used a lot of open source software in our product. (See the credits section.) What we have written, we have open sourced it ourselves so that it can be open and have a life of its own. Software is a living thing and we hope to be the central resource for the upcoming Liferecorder revolution. :)

 

Will I become a Cyborg?

With the amount of technology you use, you might already be one.

 

Have you heard about Autobiographical Memory?

Why yes, check out this interview of a select group who probably don't need a Liferecorder.

 

How can I send the meeting minutes to others?

This version there is not a build in way to do that. Expect that shortly.

 

Who are you?

We are a small startup, based in the Northern Canadian city of Edmonton. We have taken a break from our day jobs to bring this product to this point. We have received much support from friends and family who believe in us and the vision we have.