Finding Lost Data

Misplace your keys and the advice you’ll be given is to "try and remember where you were the last time you had them." Why shouldn’t finding your lost digital data work the same way?

Thanks to new technology developed by University of Illinois computer science PhD student Joshua Hailpern, it can. Hailpern’s software, YouPivot, helps you retrace your steps back to your lost files, websites, or documents by tapping into how the human memory works.

YouPivot keeps track of your activities on your computer at any given point in time -  music you’re playing, websites you’re browsing, files you’re working with. Using this data as a reference, YouPivot allows you to browse, search and “pivot” to see what else was happening on your computer at the time and rediscover what you are looking for.  As Hailpern told IEEE Spectrum in a recent article, “What was that website or PDF I was looking at when AC/DC’s ‘Hells Bells’ was playing?”

YouPivot works with even a vague recollection of what activities or data might be associated with the information you are seeking. Unlike current search methods for email and browser history, YouPivot does not require specific keywords or dates to recall information. What’s more, pivoting is only one of the many new features Hailpern created to allow users to find their "digital car keys."

YouPivot is currently available in alpha as a free extension to the Google Chrome browser, though Hailpern and his team are working on a beta release by end of 2011, and full release in spring of 2012.

Hailpern’s work on YouPivot was recently profiled in an IEEE Spectrum article “A Prototype of Pivot Searching.” Learn more about Hailpern’s technology by reading the article, or by viewing a YouTube video on the software.