In Pictures: The human face of Big Data

Gordon Bell

Gordon Bell may be remembered most as architect of the DEC VAX, but now he is engaged in building a whole different set of memories. In a project he calls MyLifeBits he is logging virtually every aspect of his life as a piece of data – his conversations, keystrokes, location, TV-viewing, real-time records of his heartbeat and cholesterol, and even photos taken every few minutes by a camera he wears around his neck. Bell has logged more than 200GB of data, and is going at a pace of about 1GB per month.

Bell believes that “collecting and analyzing these patterns and behaviors over the course of a lifetime will lead to a greater understanding of what harms or enhances our lives.”