Vivid: A New Kind of Memory Capture
➡️ Vivid is now Wist. WistLabs.com
Memories connect us to ourselves through time. We can see how we change and grow … or how much we stay the same. Memories connect us to joyous moments with friends, to moments of anxiety before a big life event, to our loved ones who’ve since died, to our childhood homes, to our past aspirations.
We age. We make new memories. Old memories fade.
Sometimes we try to capture these memories with photos or videos. These act as memory anchors, allowing us to travel back to those moments and the moments around the anchor. Photos and videos are great to look at, but they don’t give you the same experience as being there again.
So, I’m making Vivid: a way to capture, store, and relive all of your immersive memories.
Immersive memories: spatial moments in time that you can step back into
In Harry Potter, there’s a magical object called a pensieve that lets a user relive their memories (or the memories of others).
We’re at a beautiful moment on our timeline where 3D capture technology is being embedded into consumer phones via new sensors and software. The tech is early, but available.
The right combination of this new tech can allow us to capture immersive memories: spatial moments in time that you can step back into. And, the right design and engineering can make this as easy as capturing a video. We can make a pensieve real.
How is Vivid different?
People capture memories today in various ways. With a camera in our pocket, we have loads of photos and videos in our phone’s camera roll. Some people have memory boxes: collections of meaningful artifacts (e.g. ticket stubs, photo booth prints, handwritten break up letters, and toys from our childhood). And, there is always “simply” just remembering.
Your phone’s camera app is used for everything from capturing sweet moments, to remembering where you parked, to 20 photos of your cat where you’re trying to get the light just right, to saving receipts for expenses. The precious memories are hidden in between everything else.
Memory boxes are convenient in that they provide a single place to put the memory objects we don’t want to part with. But, these boxes are also thrown into the back of your closet, are hard to search through, and won’t always survive natural disasters.
Simply remembering only does so well which is why we have the other methods of memory capture.
(There are other 3D capture or viewing apps that are full of powerful features for VFX artists and technically minded folks. They’re great. I think these apps also end up being less approachable for people who just want to save some memories.)
Vivid is unique in that it is focused on
- Capturing immersive memories
- Easy to use for everyone, especially non-technical users
- Building cross-platform for mobile and immersive headsets (AR+VR)
It’s not either/or. I’ll personally continue to have a cluttered camera roll, a memory box in the closet, and use other 3D capture/viewing apps for different workflows. If Vivid works out, we’ll all have a better option for our precious memories.
The journey is just beginning
Sometime around 2012, I sketched a fictional thing where I could interview a close friend – as a kid – the way we met in 3rd grade. This simmered in the back of my head for years, melding with other memory-based concepts, and occasionally showing up in sketches and renders.
That gets us to May 2021. I left my role at Samsung as a team lead + AR/VR designer to start Vivid. I built prototypes to think through key questions (What kinds of captures should Vivid launch with? What kind of environment is best for a VR memory museum?). I went on a post-vaccine vacation and tested my hypotheses in real-world conditions.
All of this led to a product in three parts: capture, store, relive.
- Capture is as simple as point-and-shoot video.
- Store happens on the cloud and is easily available to all your devices. Stored captures can later be enhanced as 3D research advances.
- Relive happens by swiping around a capture on your phone, seeing that capture in your space through your phone, or by visiting your memory museum in your VR headset. You can even invite friends and family to join you.
Personally, I’m starting Vivid for myself just as much as I’m starting it to help others. My own memories seem to fade a bit faster than average. Often my brain thinks it forgot something only for me to remember it later when I see that place, see a relevant object, or someone else starts telling the story. I don’t want to lose my connections to my past or my past moments with my loved ones. My childhood homes, one of my grandmothers, and countless tiny moments are already gone. With Vivid, the next memories will be saved, can be revisited, and can be shared.
So far I have validated and invalidated initial assumptions. I crafted a clear yet flexible vision and made progress towards that vision. I’ll continue to iterate, solicit feedback, and build towards a launch 🚀.
I’m looking for a cofounder! If you’re technically minded and interested in joining, apply to be my partner. If you know someone who’d be a good fit, leave a comment or DM me on Twitter.
