=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-547/paper-1
|storemode=property
|title=Sharing and Protecting Networked Digital Life Memories
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-547/paper1.pdf
|volume=Vol-547
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ciia/Merabti09
}}
==Sharing and Protecting Networked Digital Life Memories==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-547/paper1.pdf
Sharing and Protecting Networked Digital Life
Memories
Professor Madjid Merabti
School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
M.Merabti@ljmu.ac.uk
Abstract- The increasing power of computers, increasing catalogue their lives in photos on photo sharing sites. While
capacity of digital memory and wider availability of a great the need to share experiences isn‟t new, the opportunities
variety of input devices such as cameras and video recorders,
has resulted in an astonishing growth in the use of multimedia certainly are. As we can see from the data of Gemmel et al.
and the production of user generated content. It’s now in Table 1 [1], a terabyte of storage will allow the recording
becoming feasible to store a digital record of everything that a of more audio than an individual can realistically generate in
person sees and hears throughout their life, all using cheap and a year. In the not too distant future users will be in a position
easily obtainable commodity hardware. Such possibilities have to record every waking (and sleeping) moment of their lives
given rise to the idea of a digital human life memory, able to
store all of the video, photographs, documents and in 2D video.
communications that relate to us as we travel through our lives. TABLE I
We explore how networked systems can be used to extend the FILLING A TERABYTE OF DATA IN A YEAR [1]
capabilities of digital human life memory stores. Not only Item Items/TB Items/day
through the networking of the memory stores themselves, but
also through the use of networked appliances, networked 300 KB JPEG picture 3.6M 9800
virtual worlds and wireless sensors network technologies. As 1 MB document 1.0M 2900
well as the benefits, the massive increase in multimedia 1 hour 256 Kb/s audio 9.3K 26
networking also presents drawbacks that include the potential
1 hour 1.5 Mb/s video 290 4
for breaches of privacy and the need for content protection. We
will also therefore consider our work in the area of security that
aims to address some of these challenges, and maintain a In this paper we will explore these ideas further,
balance between the competing benefits of sharing and considering the importance of a human life memory store,
protection of multimedia and sensory data.
how it will extend through the growth of the Internet of
Things and some of the security considerations that might
I. INTRODUCTION
result.
Over several decades, computers have continued to grow
II. HUMAN LIFE MEMORY STORE
in power and capabilities at an exponential rate. In 1965
Gordon Moore famously predicted that “the number of The massive quantity of data that we encounter and
transistors on a chip will double about every two years,” and generate through our lives has given rise to the idea of a
this remained largely true for the next thirty years. At the digital human life memory. This would be capable of storing
same time, digital storage space has improved exponentially, all of the video, images, documents and communications that
both in terms of capacity and price, so that average users are relate to us as we travel through our lives. Computers have
now able to have terabytes of storage space at their disposal. given us the means to capture and store such information,
This description, however, doesn‟t really do justice to the however the real challenge that motivates the need for a
change that many people have experienced over the thirty human life memory store is not the desire to capture and
years in the way they interact with computers. The real store, but more the desire to manage and organise these vast
changes have not been just quantitative, but qualitative as quantities of data. Although surely we have seen
well. With computers and broadband networks now near- improvements in this area, the design of an efficient
ubiquitous in many countries, people‟s lives and experiences management tool for all of this data – able to rival the brain‟s
have been transformed by modern computing. Devices that own ability to handle and recall memories – remains a
in the past would have been seen as standalone (often significant challenge.
mechanical) devices in their own right – cameras, video However, the challenge is not a new one. In 1945
recorders, phones, books – now not only connect to and Vannavar Bush published a groundbreaking article “As We
interoperate with computers, but are in fact computers in May Think” [2] that explored the possibility of developing a
their own right. Memex device able to store and retrieve all of his books,
Just one of the many exciting consequences of these records, communications and so on. At this early stage, Bush
changes has been the potential for and growth of user envisaged a desk-like device with screens able to show data
generated content (UGC). There is clearly a huge appetite for recorded on microfiche. He even considered the possibility
people to not just consume content and media, but also to of recording memories using a head-mounted camera.
create it, to describe their thoughts on personal blogs, to More recently the focus has been turned to computers to
share their experiences on social networking sites and to achieve similar ends. The ongoing Microsoft MyLifeBits
project [3] aims to fulfil the Memex vision using a database architecture that represents a decentralised and user-
of annotated photographs and other media. Microsoft controlled network for sharing memories.
developed the SenseCam to take digital photographs IV. NETWORKED MEMORIES
prompted automatically by significant changes in sensory
data, such as light or temperature levels. Media can be Although the prospect of integrating human life memory
browsed in the form of a timeline to allow the user to quickly stores with peer-to-peer networks provides great potential in
identify relevant memories. allowing people to share memories between each other
The Companions project [4] aims to make the interaction seamlessly, we believe the true benefit extends well beyond
between humans and machines easier using techniques that this. By developing our human life memory network as a
allow the computer to learn about an individual through their service on top of our existing Service Utilisation Framework
memories. For example, the computer may ask questions [8] (itself designed as a peer-to-peer architecture), we are
about a recently uploaded photograph (“Who is in this immediately able to integrate other software and hardware
picture? Is it the same person that you were with yesterday services and devices to provide additional functionality. The
afternoon?”) thereby allowing the image to e appropriately framework allows networked appliances and other devices to
tagged and the information used to augment future interoperate and compose to provide new services. For
conversations between the user and computer. example, data from a home multimedia device, phone or
Indeed the need to store, manage and share memories is networked appliance could be fed directly into the human
often seen as being a defining trait of humanity and one life memory store to provide additional annotation about
which underpins the persistence of human cultures. This has additional aspects of a person‟s life. Such additional
been recognised by the UNESCO Memory of the World information might include the type of films that someone
programme [5], which aims to store cultural documents and watches, what type of food someone enjoys or logs of device
material that might otherwise be lost, and guard against usage. Future wireless sensor networks integrated in the
“collective amnesia”. Ironically, the rapidly changing world system can be utilised in a similar manner.
of computing has often hindered rather than promoted this V. SECURITY
aim, as data stored on legacy systems becomes unreadable by
newer computers and ultimately lost. The need to tackle all Although the growth of the technologies we have been
of these issues has also been recognised by research funding discussing presents a wealth of exciting opportunities and
bodies, for example having been designated as a Grand applications, it will also inevitably present new security
Challenge for Computing in the UK [6]. threats and difficulties. The ability for memories to flow
seamlessly between interested parties represents a key
III. SHARING MEMORIES property of the systems that we are developing. To allow this,
Although retention and management of memories are of while preventing serious privacy concerns, new security
course crucial, our own work has looked at another aspect methods will be needed. For this reason we are also
which is equally important; that of sharing memories. considering distributed security techniques able to work
There are already a variety of tools that allow sharing of flexibly, but without the need for centralised control. We
different types of multimedia file and often these are web- believe the use of distributed techniques, especially through
based in nature. Social networking sites also provide an the use of mobile agents [9] and community-based security
attractive means for users to share personal information with mechanisms [10]. Community mechanisms utilise the
others in their community. However, from an architectural intrinsic nature of the peer-to-peer data sharing network –
perspective such systems are not ideal. They are inevitably that they are based on users with shared interests who are
centralised in nature and require that the user relinquishes sharing data – to improve the overall security of a system by
control of their personal data to the website owner. It can be allowing the community itself to perform the „policing‟,
difficult to transfer data between sites and should one site rather than rely on any centralised mechanism.
disappear a user‟s data may be lost with it. Moreover the VI. CONCLUSION
methods made available for annotating, organising and
searching data may be restrictive. As technology develops users will continue to use and
Previous work has shown that peer-to-peer networks generate huge quantities of information and documents. The
provide a very successful, decentralised architecture that has need to store, organise and manage this information will only
been used widely in applications where sharing large increase, and with it the desire for users to share it with
amounts of data is a primary concern [7]. Moreover, the friends, family members and others who may be interested.
characteristics of social networks have also been shown to be We believe peer-to-peer networks present an ideal
similar to those of peer-to-peer networks, which could technology that can allow not only effective management
provide an opportunity to create an efficient system by and sharing of life memories, but which will also allow
reflecting the social network structure into that of the peer- future developments in networked appliances to be
to-peer network. Our work has therefore looked at how a integrated naturally, thereby providing an even richer and
peer-to-peer network could be used as a means of storing and more effect method to manage our memories.
creating a human life memory store. This has allowed us to
improve existing methods to implement a novel peer-to-peer
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[1] J. Gemmell, G. Bell, R. Lueder, S. Drucker, and C. Wong, Special issue on “Research Developments in Consumer
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SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Madjid Merabti is Professor of
Networked Systems and Director of
the School of Computing &
Mathematical Sciences, at
Liverpool John Moores University,
UK. He is a graduate of Lancaster
University in the UK. He has over
20 years experience in conducting
research and teaching in the areas
of Computer Networks (fixed and
wireless), Mobile Computing, and
Computer Network Security. Prof.
Merabti is widely published in these areas and leads the
Distributed Multimedia Systems and Security Research
Group, which has a number of UK Government, EU, and
industry supported research projects. He is principal
investigator in a number of current projects in Digital Rights
Management, Games Technology, Multimedia Networking,
Mobile Networks Security and Privacy Architectures and
Protocols, Secure Component Composition in Ubiquitous
Personal Networks, Networked Appliances, Mobile and Ad-
Hoc Computing Environments, and Sensor Networks.
He is Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on
Multimedia, Area Editor for IEEE Communications
Magazine series on Networked Appliances and Home
Networking, Co-Editor in-Chief for the International Journal
of Pervasive Computing and Communications (JPCC),
Member of Editorial Boards for Springer Peer-to-Peer
Networking and Applications Journal, Elsevier Journal on
Computer Communications, and Wiley‟s Communications
and Security Journal. Madjid is Guest Editor for Springer
Signal Processing special issue on “Advance in Peer-t-Peer