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THE BIG IDEA
W
hat’s the big idea?
It’s known as
“
lifelogging”: Memoto is a tiny
camera you wear round your neck;
every 30 seconds it takes a photo
and uploads it to Memoto’s servers
along with GPS data on your location. A
smartphone app organises your photos for you, so
you have a visual record of everything you’ve done.
What, photos of everything?
Yes, everything –
there’s no off button. But you can always put your
Memoto in your pocket. “It’s about building respect
for other people’s privacy into the technology,”
says Källström, who co-founded the company in
Linköping in 2011 and has raised almost US$1m
(
NOK5.8m) in funding since. “Without an off button
you know if it’s visible it’s taking photos, so it forces
people to take it off when it’s not appropriate to
take photos. The camera is visible and recognisable
–
it shouldn’t be a secret that it’s there.”
But why would you want thousands of photos?
“
It’s about understanding more about who you are
and what you do,” explains Källström. “It’s about
self-knowledge and self-improvement.” He believes
you’re more likely to wish you could remember the
seemingly mundane, the everyday minutiae you’d
never consider photographing: “I lost both my
Källström, who argues that you’re more likely to
live in the moment because you’re not worrying
about having to record everything: “People
should be able to be with their kids and not have
a camera between themselves and reality. You
can wear Memoto and forget about having to
document the moment.”
Who owns the photographs?
You do, says
Källström, keen to dismiss concerns about privacy.
He insists the photos are securely encrypted on
Memoto’s servers and will never be made available to
third parties. “We’re adamant about building a model
where you’re a customer and not a product,” he says.
“
Free services have to make money from somewhere
so there’s a good chance somebody is paying for
access to your data, or aggregated statistics. We
charge a monthly fee and secure your privacy.“
Who else can benefit from lifelogging?
“
There’s been research about the advantage
of using photos to help people with memory
disorders,” says Källström. He believes that Memoto
has the potential to be a valuable tool in helping
such people communicate with their families.
Will everybody soon be wearing mini-
cameras?
The technology will go mainstream,
Källström believes, although it may take a few years.
Memoto raised $550,000 on funding platform
Kickstarter, more than 10 times its target, and
3,500
cameras have already been sold.
Sounds like an easy ride so far?
There have been
some major hurdles to overcome, especially in terms
of design. “Battery life has been the toughest part,”
says Källström, who worked in software development
before launching Memoto. “The camera is asleep
most of the time; it wakes every 30 seconds to take
the photo and store the GPS data. It’s been hard
to get to a battery life of two days. It’s been a huge
learning experience for me.”
And if Memoto goes big, will Källström stay in
Linköping? “
We have an office in Stockholm and
we’ll need one in the US,” he says, “but we have
our roots in Sweden and I don’t see us leaving any
time soon.”
memoto.com
“
You can wear Memoto and
forget about documenting
the moment”
After 12 months,
we’ll award a prize
to the best Big Idea
of the year. If you’ve
got any ideas, let us
know – email editor
Toby Skinner at
toby.skinner@ink-
global.com
Got a
big idea?
Above
⁄
Memoto is intended to
be visible so other people know
it’s taking pictures. Take it off if
you want it to stop
parents and it’s things like having breakfast or walks
in the park with them I think about, not big occasions
–
but these everyday things are never recorded.”
Won’t it mostly appeal to show-offs, self-
publicists and exhibitionists?
“
We’ve found there
are two types of user,” says Källström. “One we call
‘
collectors’, people who collect memories to show
to a close circle of friends and family, and the other
group are ‘communicators’, the people who want
to share their lives with the public.”
Won’t it encourage people to live with their
head in the past?
This isn’t the case, insists
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