Conclusions on the visual memory prosthetic

Deliberate computer-induced flashbacks were explored as a means of assisting those (author included) with visual amnesia. Two modes of operation were presented, free-running flashbacks (requiring no input or attention from the user), and user-controlled flashbacks. The use of annotated flashbacks was also explored, in particular, through the implementation of a wearable face-recognition apparatus.

The `visual memory prosthetic' begins to enlarge the scope of the concept of `memory', for it is now possible to `remember' something that one never knew in the first place. One might `remember' the name of someone one has never met before, provided that someone else has enrolled that person into a face database, and the boundaries between seeing and viewing, and between remembering and recording will begin to diminish.