Some people think we are what we remember. I mean, we get tons of information every day. But we “save” only a small part of it; only those that have an impact on us; those who make us smile, cry, be afraid, etc. What if there was a way to save all those moments? What if I told you that there is such an application? The Wist: Immersive Memories app allows us to store old “memories”. Of course, you can watch them whenever you want. All you need is a smartphone with AR support or a VR headset.
The app comes from Wist Labs, which launched this new app a week ago. Company co-founder Andrew McHugh also posted a video of a memory he captured with Wist: Immersive Memories.
It’s hard to watch the clip and not get excited. The clip shows McHugh talking to his wife and baby. The clip has been viewed over 900,000 times on Twitter.
Would you like to “re-watch” your memories?
With the Wist: Immersive Memories, you can record videos of everyday moments. The application uses some of the sensors of a new model of smartphone to capture 3D information from the images. This allows you to turn any video into a VR video.
The app works quite well on iOS. Wist: Immersive Memories uses the iPhone’s LIDAR scanner. It calculates the depth information of a scene, image and sound.
Your memories – how you remember them pic.twitter.com/eRwIK6xYTF
— Wist : Souvenirs immersifs (@WistLabs) February 21, 2023
You can then view your memories using a VR headset or mobile AR.
In a way, it’s like shooting a video. But watching it later won’t give you an immersive experience, will it? Thus, the application uses the capabilities of new phones to take 3D videos with you. Later, you can use VR, such as Meta Quest 2, to watch it once more. It is an ideal device as it supports AR in pass-through mode.
You can even visit the place where it happened and replay it as an AR hologram.
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“Sometimes we try to capture those memories with photos or videos. These act as memory anchors, allowing us to return to those moments and the moments around the anchor,” Wist Labs co-founder Andrew McHugh wrote in a Medium blog post.
“The photos and videos are nice to look at, but they don’t give you the same experience as being there once more. »
dystopian
As you can imagine, many movies feature similar technologies. For example, something identical can be found in an episode of the dystopian Netflix television series Black Mirror.
The episode, titled “The Whole Story of You,” is regarding a future where we have access to a memory implant that records everything we do, see, and hear. It allows us to relive our memories whenever we want.
Another example is the science fiction film Minority Report. In it, Tom Cruise can reenact the memories of his deceased wife and child.
It reminds me of a scene from Minority Report. pic.twitter.com/nor4YF6SVO
– Peter Kuhar (@pkuhar) February 23, 2023
But, says McHugh Wist: Immersive Memories is more like the scene from Harry Potter. In it, Harry uses a magic item to relive his memories.
“We are at a magnificent point in our timeline where 3D capture technology is being incorporated into consumer phones via new sensors and software. The technology is early, but available,” writes McHugh.
“The right combination of this new technology can allow us to capture immersive memories: spatial moments in time that you can step back into. And, the right design and engineering can make it as easy as capturing video. We can make a pensieve real.
The application is available for iOS and Meta Quest 2, but soon another device will be able to display your memories, Meta Quest Pro.
