Bhattacharjee, Yudhijt. "A Little Black Box to Jog Failing Memory." The New York Times 9 Mar. 2010: D6. Print.
The Senescam is a revolutionary idea in the advances of medicine in problems relating to memory. The Microsoft research lab in Cambridge, England developed a small black box known as the Senescam. It contains a digital camera and an accelerometer which measures neck movement. The camera takes hundreds of pictures in a short time, and is both beneficial to older people with memory issues, and younger people who wish to log their lives. Researchers think that this new technology will be good for the older generations that need help as well as their supporting families, because conversations will not have to repeated multiple times before they stick. Instead of just taking tons of pictures and placing them next to each other, the Senescam focuses in on the more important images that might be key to unlocking memories. This is still being adapted and modified, but the people who have helped test it say that it has great results, and a good future ahead of it.
The Senescam will be very useful to people of all ages. Some people might want to make a log of their lives, so they can just wear the Senescam around their neck. Older people with memory problems can use this as a tool to awaken and strengthen the memory of certain events. The people surrounding them can also use this to save time and not repeat the same conversation multiple times.
This was a good article and it was very well written. It both explained how the Senescam works, and the benefits of it. It was well written and informative, and I really liked it.
Julia did a great job with this article! More specifically, she did a great job explaining the way the machine works, which could have made the article very confusing if she didn't. Also, Julia kept the article interesting by using simple language. Finally, Julia explained who this affects and how, in a clear and concise way.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, Julia did a great job with this article she could have improved it by maybe explaining what the sciencists are looking to do with this machine in the future a little more thoroughly. Julia also could have improved the article by further explaining what the actual machine looks like.
Before reading this review, I had no idea that this kind of technology was even possible. I had no idea that there was any way to take pictures and somehow improve or save memory.
I enjoyed reading Julia’s review of “A Little Black Box to Jog Failing Memory”. Julia did an excellent job in explaining the senescam. She clearly stated how the senescam works and what it does. I also thought that Julia kept the reader interested by not making the review too long. She only wrote about the main ideas of the senescam, which made it easy to understand. Finally, the way Julia wrote the article is in a way that everyone can easily understand what the article is about.
ReplyDeleteOne part that I think Julia could have improved on is that she could have been more descriptive of the physical appearance of the black box. Since Julia did not clearly mention what the black box looked like it made it hard for me to envision the box and made it harder to understand the article. I also thought that she could have explained why the several photos jog a person’s memory. Julia also could have stated what the scientists are doing to improve this invention.
After reading Julia’s review I learned that there is technology like the senescam in the world and people are researching and inventing technology like the senescam. I also did not know that photos can help you remember things. I also found it interesting that scientists just found out how that they could help people remember things by taking several photos because I thought scientists would have already known about this kind of technology. Overall Julia did a great job reviewing the article.
I thought that Julia did a good job reviewing this article. One thing that I thought that Julia did well was that she described the Senescam very well. If Julia did not describe the Senescam well the reader would be confused through out the article and be unclear about the specific purpose of the object. Julia also said who the Senescam would affect. Since Julia said who the Senescam would affect the reader knows who this technology will affect and why it will affect them. The final thing that I think that Julia did well was that she kept the article very clear and not boring to read. There is potential that this review could have been boring but Julia chose good language to use to keep the reader for getting bored.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Julia’s article was very good there were two things that I thought that she could have done better. The first thing that I thought that Julia could have done better was that she could have described the size and the appearance of the box. When Julia said that the box is worn around your neck I pictured a large box that would be cumbersome and awkward. If Julia gave a better description than just saying the little black box it would have helped the reader to visualize box better. Another thing that I thought that Julia could have done better was that she could have shown how the pictures actually help the people with Alzheimer’s. If there are hundreds of pictures it would take to long to go through them all and they may not bring back any memories at all. If Julia cleared this up it would make the article even clearer.
I would have never dreamed that there would be a technology that would be able to take hundreds of pictures and record your daily life. If it were not for Julia’s article I would have never known that this technology was even possible. Overall I thought that Julia’s article was very well written.
I think that Julia did a very good job with this article in the way that she explained how it worked. Which helped me understand it much more. She also helped me understand the machine by explaining how it is used and also who it was created for.
ReplyDeleteOne way that Julia could have made it better would have been if she had explained what scientists are looking to use this for later and if she had actually described the look of the box a little more.
I think that this invention is really helpful not only for the patient who has the box but also for their family because it will help them remember their families as they loose their memory.
I think that Julias review was very detailed yet simple to read. She explained the uses, and who the black box would typically benefit. She used simple wording-so everyone could understand. She also explained exactly how the box worked, so we got an idea of how it was used and why.
ReplyDeleteJulia could've explained how the box was made or actually what it looked like. Also, Julia couldve explained how the Senescam would know what pictures were important, or what to take pictures of.
I was impressed with this article because i had no idea that things like this were even being invented. I think its very cool that scientist made something like this.
Julia did a very good job writing a review for the article “A Little Black Box to Jog Failing Memory”. She did a nice job explaining everything in the article, from how the machine works to how it could be useful. She made it very easy to understand by only putting the main ideas of the Sensecam. It was an ideal length, not too short or too long, and it was very easy to understand. She phrased everything in a way that made comprehending the review a simpler task. I also liked how she said multiple benefits of using this device that include logging your life, which is a benefit for young people; using it to “awaken” memories and events; and to save time by using them to remember conversations, rather than repeating them multiple times until they are understood, which is especially helpful for the elderly.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Julia’s review on the article was very good, there were a couple of things she could have improved on. She could’ve explained more why the accelerometer, which measured neck movement, was important because I didn’t really understand what that helped to do. Also, I think that she could have put more in on how this idea and technology will develop in the future and how it could help society. If she had put more information in on the description of the Sensecam it would have been easier to understand how it looked and how it would be to wear it.
Before reading Julia’s review, I had not known that the technology to help bring back people’s memories existed or was even being developed. I also didn’t realize how helpful simple pictures could be to bringing back memories. Overall I think Julia did a very good job reviewing the article.
In Julia’s review of “A Little Black Box to Jog Failing Memory”, I learned a lot. I think she summarized the article very well. In addition, She made it clear how the sensecam would affect older people. She also let readers know how it works.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I wish she had elaborated on the inner workings of the device. How does it store all of the pictures? How can people view the pictures? Also, I wish I knew what it looked like. Is it big? Small? Lastly, I want to know what the problems in the development were and how they were solved.
This article really goes to show how technology really helps people. Memory problems are hard to fix, but this could really help people in the mean time.
I have learned a lot from Julia's review on the article "A Little Black Box to Jog Failing Memory." I found it very interesting how there is now something that helps the elderly with a memory problem and for the youth who wish to store their memories. I especially like this new technology because I sometimes find it a bit irritating to repeat myself three or four times for someone older to have to understand what I'm saying and not forget it later on. I also really like how people of any ages can log certain parts of their life to look back on later. On thing Julia could have done a little better would to have gone a little bit more in detail of the features of this little black box. A second thing I would recommend is similar to what I said before except about the neck part of the technology. I found it hard to picture someone walking around with some sort of neck strap on them to log their memories so going into that with a little more detail would have been better. Overall this was a well written review and I loved learning about something new that is so advanced in technology.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking over Julia’s article, I was very impressed. I found the little black box to be a very useful and interesting instrument and Julia presented it very well. The first thing that she presented that was key was who made the product. She referred to what company, Microsoft, and where, England. I had no idea before I read this article that they were doing this in England. The second thing she presented well was describing it in detail. She discussed the structure of its outer parts and inner parts. Another thing that she truly presented with care was who it was going to help. I loved that she talked about the uses for people of different ages and helping people with diseases, it gave you a great insight of where this product was headed.
ReplyDeleteI thought Julia did a great job and I do not see a lot wrong with the review, I would only suggest a few things. One, her second paragraph was a little redundant towards the first paragraph and she struck points that had already been discussed. Two, just too maybe put in some more uses like maybe kids who leave stuff places could use it and it would be a good source for the police. Other than those two minor changes, her review was excellent and very informative.
I found this article especially interesting because I tend to leave things places and completely forget about them. It also hits home for me because my grandpa has Alzheimer’s and this little instrument will help him remember things much longer than if he had nothing at all. I truly love my grandfather, but soon he will not even remember my name no matter what medications he is on. This will help him and millions of other with this disease to be able to remember things of grave importance.
I enjoyed reading Julia's review of the New York Times Article "A Little Black Box to Jog Failing Memory." She did a good job in explaining the features of the Senescam, and its possible use cases. She did so concisely and in an easy to understand way.
ReplyDeleteTo improve her article, Julia should include more details and anecdotes that were in the original article that would make her article less abstract. For example, the original article talked specifically about a man named Mr. Reznik whose life was improved by the Senescam. Julia also failed to talk about how the Senscam also records audio, and organizes the pictures that are most likely to jog the user's memory into a multimedia slideshow viewable on a tablet computer. More details about these things would improve the quality of the review.
I was surprised to read how Microsoft is working to help people with memory problems, even if it was not the original demographic they intended to cater to when the product is first released. It also shows how prominent computer and internet companies have become when they instead of companies which make technology specifically for medicine are working to solve this problem. The fact that three out of four of this week's current events are about Alzheimer's and memory loss in general show what an important topic this is, as people are living longer and longer and resultantly are encountering more natural afflictions, especially neurological ones, as they do so.
Julia's article review was a good read. She did a good job explaining how the camera worked. She made it clear how it affects people. I especially liked that she explained about how it worked for both older and younger people. Also, her vocabulary was easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteThough this review was well written, I didn't like the fact that it was a little repetitive. At first, Julia talked about affects on society, and then in the second paragraph she repeated herself. Also, the review was somewhat brief.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this review. It could be a big breakthrough and I look forward to seeing it on the market.