Imaging the Event

The paper will reflect on the capture, storage and recovery of events that are recorded through disparate sensors located in smart homes. As our homes and workplaces become fitted with sensors that stream instants of time stamped data to cloud based servers, it is possible to identify horizontal patterns between individual data sets that suggest activities and events within physical contexts. However, although the databases grow very quickly from just a handful of sensors, the fidelity of any single human event remains very low.

This paper explores the ‘non-representation’ of mundane practices that can be recovered in databases through the correlation of light, energy, motion and temporal data such as making a cup of coffee, or taking a shower. It is likely that the foundations for new opportunities across the Internet of Things will be identified in the patterns that are derived from these contextual archetypes (Ng 2012). The paper will explore the evidence of the author’s personal events as they are captured, recorded and recovered through the lens of a database.

The paper will draw upon findings of the Hub of All Things (HAT) project funded by the Research Council’s UK Digital Economy Programme. Launched in June 2013, HAT will create the first ever Multi-sided Market Technology Platform for the home, allowing individuals to trade their personal data for personalised products and services in the future. By collecting information through sensors on objects in their homes and integrating it with other personal data, the project will uncover insights of unprecedented depth and breadth into how we live our lives in relation to the experience of things and people around us.