While some Kickstarter projects go about begging for funds like online versions of Oliver Twist, others can't staunch the flow of pledges. Memoto is one of those. The little camera is raising big money, so much that it doubled its $50,000 funding goal in just 12 hours and has already topped $245,000.
The lightweight Memoto clips onto the front of your shirt or somewhere else convenient. It takes 5-megapixel photos at the rate of two photos per minute when it's being worn and shuts off when you tuck it away into a pocket. The 8GB of memory is enough for a couple of days of photos. The photos are stored online through a Memoto service so you don't have to clog up all your precious computer memory.
Memoto comes with an app that organizes the photos into a timeline along with GPS information. It is quite literally a photographic memory, except your memories are stored off-site from your brain. Naturally, you can share your photos over social media until your friends ban you from their Facebook updates.
What is it about Memoto that has captured the imaginations and wallets of so many people? It's not cheap. The $199 early-bird deals sold out fast. Now, it's on to costing $249 for your own camera.
Here's my theory on the Memoto's popularity. We already offload a lot of the mental data processing we used to do. We can access trivia online and pull up a calculator on our smartphones. Why not offload visual memories, too? It's perfect for absent-minded people or folks with bad face memories. I can understand the allure.
There will be subscription fees for the photo storage service. Memoto expects users to generate 1.5TB of images each year. Despite the price, there appears to be no shortage of customers eager to try their hand at life-logging. A device like this certainly would have made "Memento" a much shorter movie.
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