Worn on a cord around the neck, the camera takes pictures automatically as often as once every 30 seconds. It also uses an accelerometer and light sensors to snap an image when a person enters a new environment, and an infrared sensor to take one when it detects the body heat of a person in front of the wearer. It can fit 30,000 images onto its 1-gigabyte memory.

The ViconRevue was originally developed as the SenseCam by Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK, for researchers studying Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Studies showed that reviewing the events of the day using SenseCam photos could help some people improve long-term recall. ABC News

The sensecam’s current primary purpose is to create a video log from the wearer’s perspective that can be used to jog the memories of Alzeimers patients. But the technology is now in production by Microsoft and — who knows — it may become the next egocentric extension of the established twittering and blogging culture.