Storing and recalling information to augment human memories

A computer-implemented method for augmenting a memory of a user about an environment external to the user, the method comprising:

• storing information about a current state of the environment by,
• recording information from the environment with at least one input device of the computer;
• receiving an indication of a tag related to the environment;
• receiving an indication of descriptive information about the environment;
• and
• associating the indicated tag and the indicated descriptive information with the recorded environment information,
• so that if the tag is later supplied, the recorded environment information and the descriptive information can be presented to augment the memory of the user of the state of the environment at the time of the storing.

A method in a computer for augmenting a memory of a user, the method comprising:

• in response to each of a plurality of indications from the user, storing a group of information about a current state by,
• receiving from the user an indication of at least one input sensor of the computer;
• recording information about the current state with the indicated input sensors;
• receiving from the user an indication of a topic related to the current state;
• receiving from the user an indication of information describing the current state;
• and
• associating the indicated topic and the indicated descriptive information with the recorded information;
• and
• indexing the stored groups of information in order to facilitate later retrieval of a stored group of information.

A method in a computer for augmenting a memory of a user, the method comprising:

• monitoring the user to collect a group of information about a current state of the user;
• monitoring an environment of the user to collect a group of information about a current state of the environment;
• and
• without user intervention,
• determining based on the collected groups of information a level of user interest in at least one of the current state of the user and the current state of the environment;
• and
• when the level of user interest in at least one of the current states is determined to exceed a threshold, storing information about at least one of the current states by,
• recording information about at least one of the current states with at least one input sensor of the computer;
• determining a topic related to the recorded information;
• and
• associating the determined topic with the recorded information,
• so that the stored information can later be presented to the user to augment the memory of the user of the current states at the time of the recording.

A method in a computer for augmenting a memory of a user, the computer having a plurality of stored groups of information each having a tag, each group of information describing an environment of the user at a previous time, each group of information having descriptive information about the environment and having information recorded from the environment at the previous time by at least one computer input device, the method comprising:

• receiving an indication of a tag;
• determining whether one of the stored groups of information has a tag matching the indicated tag;
• and
• when one of the stored groups of information is determined to have a matching tag, augmenting the memory of the user about the environment at the previous time when the information for the determined group of information was recorded by,
• presenting to the user the recorded information from the determined group of information;
• and
• presenting to the user the descriptive information from the determined group of information.

A method in a computer for augmenting a memory of a user, the computer having a plurality of stored state fragments each describing a previous time, each state fragment having information recorded at the previous time for that state fragment by at least one computer input sensor, an associated topic related to the recorded information, and descriptive information about the recorded information, the method comprising:

• receiving from the user an indication of a topic;
• determining whether one of the stored state fragments has an associated topic matching the indicated topic;
• and
• when one of the stored state fragments is determined to have a matching associated topic, augmenting the memory of the user about the previous time described by the determined state fragment by,
• presenting to the user the recorded information of the one state fragment;
• and
• presenting to the user the descriptive information of the one state fragment.

A method in a computer for augmenting a memory of a user, the computer having a plurality of stored state fragments each describing a previous time, each state fragment having information recorded at the previous time for that state fragment by at least one computer input sensor and having an associated topic related to the recorded information, the method comprising:

• monitoring the user to collect a group of information about a current state of the user;
• monitoring an environment of the user to collect a group of information about a current state of the environment;
• and
• without user intervention,
• determining based on the collected groups of information a topic of interest to the user;
• and
• augmenting the memory of the user about a past state having information related to the determined topic by,
• identifying a stored state fragment with an associated topic that matches the determined topic;
• and
• presenting to the user the recorded information of the identified state fragment.

A computer-implemented method for augmenting a memory of a user, the method comprising:

• storing information about a current state by,
• recording information from an environment external to the user with at least one input device of the computer;
• recording information from the user with at least one input device of the computer;
• receiving an indication of a tag related to the current state, the indicated tag to be used for later retrieval of the recorded environment information and the recorded user information;
• and
• associating the indicated tag with the recorded environment information and the recorded user information,
• so that if the tag is later supplied, the recorded environment information and the recorded user information can be used to augment the memory of the user of the state at the time of the storing.

A method in a computer for augmenting a memory of a user, the computer having a plurality of stored groups of information each having a tag, each group of information describing a previous state, each group of information having information recorded from an environment external to the user by at least one computer input device and having information recorded from the user by at least one computer input device, the method comprising:

• receiving an indication of a tag;
• determining whether one of the stored groups of information has a tag matching the indicated tag;
• and
• when one of the stored groups of information is determined to have a matching tag, augmenting the memory of the user about the previous state described by the one group of information by,
• presenting to the user the recorded environment information from the one group of information;
• and
• presenting to the user the recorded user information from the one group of information.

A method for augmenting memory of a user of a wearable computer having a plurality of input devices, the method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of indications to store information about a current state;
• for each of the plurality of received indications, storing a state fragment by,
• recording sensed information about an environment external to the user from one of the input sensor devices;
• recording sensed information about the user from one of the input sensor devices;
• and
• associating the recorded environment information and the recorded user information as the stored state fragment;
• and
• augmenting the memory of the user of a past state by,
• receiving an indication of a topic of interest to the user;
• identifying at least one stored state fragment having information related to the topic of interest;
• and
• presenting to the user the recorded environment information and the recorded user information associated with the identified state fragment.

A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computer to augment a memory of a user about an environment external to the user, by:

• storing information about a current state of the environment by,
• recording information from the environment with at least one input device of the computer;
• receiving an indication of a tag related to the environment;
• receiving an indication of descriptive information about the environment;
• and
• associating the indicated tag and the indicated descriptive information with the recorded environment information,
• so that if the tag is later supplied, the recorded environment information and the descriptive information can be presented to augment the memory of the user of the state of the environment at the time of the storing.

A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computer to augment a memory of a user, the computer having a plurality of stored groups of information each having a tag, each group of information describing an environment of the user at a previous time, each group of information having descriptive information about the environment and having information recorded from the environment at the previous time by at least one computer input device, by:

• receiving an indication of a tag;
• determining whether one of the stored groups of information has a tag matching the indicated tag;
• and
• when one of the stored groups of information is determined to have a matching tag, augmenting the memory of the user about the environment at the previous time described by the determined group of information by,
• presenting to the user the recorded information from the determined group of information;
• and
• presenting to the user the descriptive information from the determined group of information.

A data structure stored in memory of a computer for use in augmenting a memory of a user, the data structure describing a state of the user at a previous time, comprising:

• information about an environment external to the user sensed by an input sensor device of the computer at the previous time;
• information from the user received by an input device of the computer at the previous time;
• and
• a tag for identifying the data structure,
• so that if the tag is supplied, the environment information and the user information can be presented to augment the memory of the user of the state at the previous time.

A generated data signal transmitted via a data transmission medium, the data signal comprising:

• information about an environment external to the user sensed by an input sensor device of the computer at the previous time;
• information from the user received by an input device of the computer at the previous time;
• and
• a tag for identifying the data signal,
• so that if the tag is supplied, the environment information and the user information can be presented to augment the memory of the user of the previous time.