Your life in a matchbox

Within 10 years we could be carrying personal computing devices that store our every word and deed, according to chip giant Intel.

Speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in San Jose, senior Intel researcher Roy Want unveiled a prototype device which the company calls a Personal Server.

He explained that the matchbox-sized PC could be used to store a wide variety of personal information that could be accessed by many different devices.

"Storage capacity is growing in leaps and bounds. By 2012 you will be able to carry a device that could record a lifetime's conversations. It would take about three terabytes of data to do," said Want.

"To include video you'd need 97 terabytes, which is expected to be economically viable at current development rates by 2014."

The Personal Server would consist of a high capacity storage unit with a powerful processor and wireless communications.

It could be controlled with a unit built into a watch, and would interface with whichever PC or mobile device the user happened to be working on.

Prices, timetables and news could be downloaded from billboards and other public access points and then printed out on wireless printers.

Security would be a major concern with such a device, and Want proposed a new system of access control based not on passwords but on what the user can do uniquely.

He gave the example of carrying a number of digital images, some of which the user knew and some of which were random. Access would be allowed by picking the correct images.

"I would be very surprised if you don't see devices like this on the market in five years' time," said Want.

"There could also be a legal requirement for such a device in some circumstances. It would certainly make solving arguments a lot easier."