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Memoto camera launches Kickstarter campaign to bring lifelogging to the masses

Memoto camera launches Kickstarter campaign to bring lifelogging to the masses

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memoto shirt
memoto shirt

Swedish startup Memoto today announced the availability of its self-titled flagship product, a tiny camera you clip to your shirt that captures a 5MP picture every thirty seconds. Unlike GoPro, which has a tight hold on the mobile video recording market, Memoto seeks to bring effortless capture of life's less extreme moments to consumers.

The Memoto's rechargeable battery lasts two days, and its built-in accelerometer orients photos at non-nauseating angles when you browse them later. At the end of each day, plug the device into your computer through a Micro USB cable and all your photos upload automatically to Memoto's cloud servers. Once the upload is complete, your photos become accessible through an iPhone or Android app, as well through the company's website, where photos are organized by location, time, and date. The Memoto debuts on Kickstarter today, where a $199 pledge buys you a gray, white, or orange Memoto device, a one-year subscription to the company's service, and an estimated availability of early 2013.

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Those that choose to buy-in early will get a Memoto at a discounted price, while those who order it after the Kickstarter campaign concludes will have to pay $279. The device functions a lot like a Fitbit or GoPro, recording your every move as part gadget, part fashion accessory. The difference is that the Fitbit belongs in your pocket and GoPro belongs on your helmet or surfboard, while the Memoto must be worn on your shirt. The idea is to record every place you go and every person you talk to to create a beautiful log of your life.

Lifelogging solutions like Looxcie and uCorder already exist, but neither pair a fashionable gadget with an elegant interface for browsing all the stuff you're recorded. Looxcie is the best of the bunch, but it functions more like a GoPro, offering only five or ten-hour video recording models with the option to stream content live through your smartphone. An upcoming model offers full 1080p video recording and built-in Wi-Fi, but it costs $329.99. Memoto might find a sweet spot with its dead simple design and specific utility: logging your life, not logging your latest bike ride in HD. Memoto's noble goal recalls the Google Glass promo video we saw earlier this year that illustrated the ways a piece of technology could be integrate with our daily life, but Glass is still a couple years away.

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"With Memoto, you can effortlessly travel back in time."

"With Memoto, you can effortlessly travel back in time to that moment when you met the love of your life, the day your daughter took her first step, or that night you laughed the night away with friends," Memoto CEO Martin Källström said in a press release. Memoto isn't quite as obvious as Glass, or as discreet as Fitbit. It also isn't the first lifelogging gadget you can attach to your body. Either way, it's obvious that a new class of lifelogging technology is about to change the way we live — or just make us look really awkward.