Exploiting linked data to create rich human digital memories

Memories are an important aspect of a person’s life and experiences. The area of human digital memories focuses on encapsulating this phenomenon, in a digital format, over a lifetime. Through the proliferation of ubiquitous devices, both people and the surrounding environment are generating a phenomenal amount of data. With all of this disjointed information available, successfully searching it and bringing it together, to form a human digital memory, is a challenge. This is especially true when a lifetime of data is being examined. Linked Data provides an ideal, and novel, solution for overcoming this challenge, where a variety of data sources can be drawn upon to capture detailed information surrounding a given event. Memories, created in this way, contain vivid structures and varied data sources, which emerge through the semantic clustering of content and other memories. This paper presents DigMem, a platform for creating human digital memories, based on device-specific services and the user’s current environment. In this way, information is semantically structured to create temporal “memory boxes” for human experiences. A working prototype has been successfully developed, which demonstrates the approach. In order to evaluate the applicability of the system a number of experiments have been undertaken. These have been successful in creating human digital memories and illustrating how a user can be monitored in both indoor and outdoor environments. Furthermore, the user’s heartbeat information is analysed to determine his or her heart rate. This has been achieved with the development of a QRS Complex detection algorithm and heart rate calculation method. These methods process collected electrocardiography (ECG) information to discern the heart rate of the user. This information is essential in illustrating how certain situations can make the user feel.