Digital Life Stories: Semi-Automatic (Auto)Biographies Within Lifelog Collections
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Digital Life Stories: Semi-Automatic (Auto)Biographies within Lifelog Collections Daragh Byrne Adissertationsubmittedinfulfilmentoftherequirementsfor the award of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) to the Dublin City University School of Computing Supervisor: Dr. Gareth J.F. Jones January, 2012 Declaration Iherebycertifythatthismaterial,whichInowsubmitforassessment on the pro- gramme of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy isentirelymyown work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that theworkisoriginal,and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: ID No: Date: Abstract Our life stories enable us to reflect upon and share our personal histories. Through emerging digital technologies the possibility of collecting life experiences digitally is increasingly feasible; consequently so is the potential to create a digital counterpart to our personal narratives. In this work, lifelogging tools are used to collect digital artifacts continuously and passively throughout our day. These include images, documents, emails and webpages accessed; texts messages and mobile activity. This range of data when brought together is known as a lifelog. Given the complexity, volume and multimodal nature of such collections, it is clear that there are significant challenges to be addressed in order to achieve coherent and meaningful digital narratives of our events from our life histories. This work investigates the construction of personal digital narratives from lifelog collections. It examines the underlying questions, issues and challenges relating to construction of personal digital narratives from lifelogs. Fundamentally, it addresses how to organize and transform data sampled from an individual’s day-to-day activities into a coherent narrative account. This enquiry is enabled by three 20-month long-term lifelogs collected by participants and produces a narrative system which enables the semi-automatic construction of digital stories from lifelog content. Inspired by probative studies conducted into current practices of curation, from which a set of fundamental requirements are established, this solution employs a 2-dimensional spatial framework for storytelling. It delivers integrated support for the structuring of lifelog content and its distillation into storyform through information retrieval approaches. We describe and contribute flexible algorithmic approaches to achieve both. Finally, this research inquiry yields qualitative and quantitative insights into such digital narratives and their generation, composition and construction. The opportunities for such personal narrative accounts to enable recollection, reminiscence and reflection with the collection owners are established and its benefit in sharing past personal experience experiences is outlined. Finally, in a novel investigation with motivated third parties we demonstrate the opportunities such narrative accounts may have beyond the scope of the collection owner in: personal, societal and cultural explorations, artistic endeavours and as a generational heirloom. 1 Acknowledgements Both my parents, Deirdre and Dave, have worked very hard to ensure I had every opportunity in life. This is as much a product of their work as it is mine. This thesis has for the most part been a labour of love. In the times that it wasn't there were many who supported me. To my sisters Eve and Emma, all my friends, and all those who I spent time with in the CDVP, especially those in L131, for all the inspiration, encouragement, and of course laughter, levity and more. Sincere thanks to all the participants in the studies, and particularly Liadh and Yuki who were tremendously giving of their time, effort and personal data. It was a pleasure to work with you both. Also, to Prof. Aisling Kelliher for all the advice, feedback and collaboration which made Chapter 9 possible. Finally, I'd like to extend Dr. Gareth Jones, my supervisor, my heartfelt thanks for all the input, advice and consideration he has given over the course of this work. It is truly appreciated. Of course this work wouldn't be possible without the generous support and funding received. I would like to in particular acknowledge the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) for the scholarship award which made undertaking my doctoral studies possible. I'd like to also extend my sincere thanks to Prof. Alan Smeaton and CLARITY: The Centre for Sensor Web Technologies for additional funding and support of this research as well as for the many opportunities this afforded me. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... 2 Table of Contents.............................................................................................. 3 Chapter 1 ......................................................................................................... 12 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 12 1.1 Overview..............................................................................................................12 1.2 Motivation............................................................................................................13 1.3 Problem Definition ...............................................................................................15 1.4 Hypotheses .........................................................................................................17 1.6 Research Questions ............................................................................................17 1.6.1 Structural Form .............................................................................................17 1.6.2 Representational Form..................................................................................18 1.6.3 Presentational Form......................................................................................20 1.6.4 Functional Form Of Output ...........................................................................21 1.8 Approach, Methodology and Outline of Thesis...................................................22 1.9 Research Contributions.......................................................................................26 Chapter 2 ......................................................................................................... 28 Lifelogging ....................................................................................................... 28 Overview....................................................................................................................28 2.1 The Memex Vision ...............................................................................................29 2.2 Emergence of Lifelogging....................................................................................29 2.3 Definition, Goals and Motivations........................................................................32 2.4 Applications & Domains ......................................................................................33 2.5 Technologies Supporting Lifelogging..................................................................35 2.5.1 Visual.............................................................................................................36 2.5.2 Audio.............................................................................................................38 2.5.3 Personal Content ..........................................................................................40 2.5.4 Personal Context ..........................................................................................41 2.5.5 Biometrics.....................................................................................................42 2.5.6 Other Sources...............................................................................................43 2.6 Current Research Stands ....................................................................................44 3 2.6.1 Capture .........................................................................................................44 2.6.2 Management And Retrieval...........................................................................44 2.6.3 Access and Presentation ..............................................................................46 2.6.4 Reminiscence, Reminding and Recollection ................................................48 2.6.5 Reflection ......................................................................................................50 2.6.6 Sharing and Support.....................................................................................51 2.7 Nature of Lifelog Collections ...............................................................................52 2.7.1 Passively Sampled Record of Experience ....................................................52 2.7.2 Personal Archives .........................................................................................53 2.7.3 Long-term Stores..........................................................................................54 2.7.4 Rich and Detailed, But Voluminous ..............................................................55