Kingreaper comments on Lifelogging: the recording device - Less Wrong

11 Post author: gwern 15 October 2010 01:04AM

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Comment author: gwern 28 October 2010 12:40:52AM 2 points [-]

foucist has suggested that one quick route to a lifelogger is to modify the uCorder to have longer battery-life, since it is almost perfect in every other respect. The uCorder recharges through its USB port, so one could hook it up to a USB battery.

USB batteries are popular for things like iPods, so we benefit from economies of scale; it seems possible to boost recording time to upwards of 10 hours with a USB battery like this $42 one.

Unfortunately, foucist also found that the uCorder manual says it cannot record while charging, and presumably wouldn't automatically draw on the battery anyway. So this wouldn't work (without a lot of manual intervention, and the uCorder takes hours to recharge...)

But the basic idea is sound - we just need to find a nice recorder which will run off a battery pack.

Comment author: Kingreaper 28 October 2010 10:39:11AM *  0 points [-]

Wouldn't it be possible simply to carry 2 uCorders, and swap then every 2 hours?

Putting the one that is not in use onto the USB battery.

Comment author: gwern 28 October 2010 02:23:03PM *  1 point [-]

Sure, but then we are well past trivial inconvenience and into real inconvenience.

I mean, if you don't mind the constant switching, you could just buy six of these at around ~$120 and switch every 2 hours!

(Significantly cheaper too: 120 vs 180+USB battery.)