Adding Search Queries to Picture Lifelogs for Memory Retrieval

A picture lifelog is a type of lifelog that consists of pictures, mainly taken by the user. Recently, users have been able to easily create picture lifelogs because many portable devices such as smart phones have a camera. When a user sees a picture in their picture lifelog, it is sometimes difficult to recall the events related to the picture. Therefore, we proposed to combine search queries on a picture lifelog in order to support memory retrieval. Search queries are input into a web search engine to satisfy a user's need for information. Recently, because of the prevalence of smart phones, the opportunity to input search queries has increased to anytime and anywhere. Search queries are stored in a cloud user database such as Google search history. In addition, those search queries imply what the user was thinking at the time. We investigated whether search queries enable a user to recall their thoughts regarding picture lifelogs. Thus, we conducted an experiment to ascertain whether search queries reminded a user of past events. As a result, we reveal that displaying a picture with search queries performed around the time it was taken tends to improve users' memories better than its time, location, or emails sent during that time.