Tech Watch: Video 'Pre-Record'

[Rodney]

This relates to some previous musing on devices that are 'constantly on'; something that is fairly common now that wasn't all that long ago.

 

The term 'pre-record' can be a little hard to research online because of the use of the terms such as 'prerecorded' which imply video recorded for later viewing.

This aspect of pre-record has to do with cameras/sensors that record continuously so they can time travel into the past from the moment where the user of the device first hits the record button to retrieve data. Generally, 30 seconds of video footage can then be recovered prior to the moment the recording was triggered. A downside of this in first generation models is that only video imagery is continuously recorded (i.e. no audio) so this results in the first 30 seconds of a video being silent. This has been problematic for many police body cameras because the event desired to be recorded (both visuals and audio) may have occurred just prior to the device being activated (which prompted the officer to start recording in the first place. This deficit has been mitigated in a number of ways and continues to change.

 

What this and other technologies point to is the ever increasing world of recorded data, How much is stored and how long it is stored depends on available storage and the desires and requirements of the operator(s). Combine this with a host of other technologies now redefining what a camera is and how it processes imagery and the future is set to be very different from what was only recently imagined.

 

It has been said that to be truly revolutionary a technology must redefine our perception of time and space.

Video pre-record, a simple technology at it's core, may not be quite all that but through it nascent 'time travel' capability suggests a world on the precipice..

 

 

Added: The term used for this technology is often "pre event recording", which doesn't quite capture what is going on either.