Getting old sucks.  The only thing worse is the alternative.

I travel for work more frequently these days, and I spend more of my precious limited memory on things like “what color is my rental car this week” and “where the heck did I park it?

This week I found a new weapon in my war on aging.  The digital camera.

Now when I park the car, I take a quick photo of the street sign.  If I need to, I can refer back to it or show it to a helpful native who might point me in the right direction.

In Portland (and in other cities, I imagine) you pay for parking using centralized PayPark stations.  They print out a time-stamped receipt you stick on your window.  With a quick click, I no longer have to worry “does the meter expire at 2:30 or 2:45.”

I went for a hike without a map (ok, not a good idea in general).  The trailhead had a map carved into steel.  The photo of the entire map was too small to be useful on the camera’s build in screen, but with the zoom and steering functions on image replay, I managed my way around quite well.  Better than a Polaroid.

Now if I could just remember where I left my keys….

Tags: digital camera, memory aids, technology for Boomers, where did I park the car?

Money magazine recently published its recommendations for digital cameras for the holidays.  Included in their picks is the Panasonix Lumix DMC-SZ3 (List: $350; Street: $270).  What caught my eye is a feature that enables you to store up to six faces in the camera’s memory.  When one of the faces is present when a picture is to be snapped, the camera automatically focuses on it and optimizes the lighting conditions (aperture and speed) on that face.

It’s really quite amazing the number of consumer applications using facial recognition.  This used to be considered a difficult problem in computer science, but clearly, much progress has been made.

Another great app that recognizes faces is Google’s Picasa 3 (Free).  Picasa searches your computer (or whatever directories you select) for photos.  It then identifies faces in those photos.  As you begin to assign names to the faces the software learns more about what “Jeff” looks like and is better able to select additional photos including “Jeff.”  When you’re done, you can create a collage off all of “Jeff’s” photos. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: face recognition