Microsoft Partners With Vicon Over Sensecam Lifecorder

A camera that was developed by Microsoft Research in Cambridge and destined at helping those affected by diseases that causes memory loss is set to be sold by Vicon.

The company, which develops motion capture products for life science, engineering and entertainment industries, has confirmed that it has signed an intellectual property license with Microsoft and will sell the device, called the Sensecam.

In a nutshell, it is a camera that is worn around the neck and takes a picture every 30 seconds with a capacity of 30,000 images stored on a 1GB internal memory - enough for 10 days worth of pictures. With an average size of 33KB per file, one can guess that the sensor is a VGA model (640x480 pixels).

It also comes with a built-in accelerometer as well as light sensors to take a picture when the wearer moves around. The $820 camera also has an infrared sensor to detect people located in front of its lenses.

Douglas Reinke, CEO and President at Vicon, said in a statement that “We’d like to thank Microsoft and Microsoft Research Cambridge for allowing Vicon to get involved in such an important product that can support a variety of researchers, including those investigating memory-loss”.