Often, we want to try and preserve some record of our experiences, usually implicitly through memories. However, since memory sometimes fail, we sometimes use more explicit preservation techniques through photos and videos (such as when on vacation), or with notes (such as in the classroom).

However, the manual preservation of experiences has some drawbacks. First, it can be difficult or impossible if the hands are otherwise engaged. Secondly, the act of trying to take notes often interferes with the enjoyment, participation, or engagement of the experience (as many students bemoan while attending lectures!). Finally, manual capture is generally considered to be too cumbersome to be used continuously, preventing us from having a record of our daily encounters.

What if we could effortlessly capture (and access) this information? Why would we want to capture the details of our everyday lives? The automated capture of everyday experiences could lead to new approaches to memory and experience preservation. We already have devices that can record everything we see and hear. How can we make use of this capability? How will we access these recordings? What is possible once everyone has this capability?

We see capture and access as a general technique to use computers for what they do best, recording an event, in order to free us to do what we do best: attending to, synthesizing , and understanding what is happening around us. This lets us focus more on the experience of the event and less on the preservation of it.