An introduction to retrieval and reminiscence from Lifelog archives at NTCIR

In recent years, various software and hardware tools have entered the consumer market which enable users to log data about their lives on a continuous basis. Popular examples include self-tracking devices or apps such as Fitbit or Garmin that allow users to keep track of their physical activities or to monitor their biometrics. The process of gathering such multi-modal data from multiple sources is also referred to as lifelogging.

Due to the constant stream of data being captured, lifelogging can result in the creation of large personal archives that are too large for manual organization. Consequently, automated approaches to handle such data are needed. However, due to privacy concerns, advances in the field have been limited by the lack of shared test collections.

Aiming to promote further research on novel approaches to multi-modal personal data analytics and retrieval, we organized a comparative benchmarking exercise, Lifelog, that ran between 2015 and 2022 as part of the evaluation conference NTCIR. Several Lifelog datasets were released and participants could work on various sub-tasks to tackle different challenges related to Lifelog retrieval. In this keynote presentation, I will give an overview of these sub-tasks and reflect on lessons learned.