Gone are the days of getting photos printed out and sticking them into an album only for them to collect dust on your bookshelf. These days, with the likes of Facebook and Instagram, photos are instant and everywhere — documenting our lives and allowing us to share with others on a daily basis.So I suppose it should come as no surprise that there’s a new camera about to hit the market that promises to “change the way we think about photography” altogether — taking the photographer out of the process.A new “life-logging” camera called the Autographer, is a hands-free digital camera that automatically takes thousands of photographs a day and stores them for review on a smartphone app.Designed to be worn constantly, the camera takes pictures as a user goes through their daily lives — however ordinary or extraordinary.The camera, which measures about 1.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall, is can be worn hanging around your neck on a lanyard or clipped to your clothes or bag. It will take up to 2,000 photos a day as you go about your daily life.With a fish-eye lens and five different sensors that detect changes in light, motion, colour, direction and temperature, the camera adjusts automatically and senses when to use its wide-angle lens.OMG, the Oxford, UK-based tech company that launched the new device on Monday, said the Autographer can figure out “the perfect time to take a photograph”."For instance, Autographer might capture an image when the wearer speeds up as they run for the bus, moves from a warm pub to a snowy street or turns around to greet a friend," the company said in a statement.“All the wearer has to do is put it on and go, and at the end of the day, watch their ‘unseen’ moments unfold through natural, unpredictable images and stop-frame videos, revealing a surprising new take on their world.”The Autographer will be available for purchase this November. Priced at £399 (about $650), it isn't cheap, but it’s also no slouch, quality-wise. With 135-degree field of view, it has broadly the same breadth of vision as the human eye and can capture more than a typical camera phone. It takes 5-megapixel images and has 8GB of memory on board allowing it to store many days’ worth of pictures. It also has an OLED display and Bluetooth so you can upload and share your “precious moments” wirelessly with the click of a button.The technology behind the Autographer has an interesting back story. OMG, which specialises in motion capture and a range of similar technologies, developed the idea in conjunction with Microsoft’s research team in Cambridge to help people suffering from early-onset dementia recall the details of their days where their short-term memories were failing.“Since 2009, OMG has been responsible for developing Microsoft’s SenseCam technology, a wearable camera that automatically captures thousands of pictures a day,” said Simon Randall, head of OMG Life. “It has proved of great value to people with memory impairment, helping them recover ‘lost’ memories and manage their lives more effectively.”The development of the SenseCam stemmed from the research of Gordon Bell, a 78 year old Microsoft researcher who is saving his entire life on a computer. In 1998, the principal researcher at the Microsoft Research Laboratory in Silicon Valley, started the MyLifeBits project — an experiment in life-logging. Since then, he has led the life of a digital pack rat — recording (and storing) every twist and turn of his life in digital photos and videos.In 2003, Bell began wearing the invention of Lyndsay Williams, a researcher at Microsoft’s Cambridge lab, who created the SenseCam. The camera, worn around Mr Bell’s neck, made it easier for him to take photos and videos throughout his day.Mr Bell’s archive contains thousands upon thousands of photos, videos, e-mails, recordings of phone calls he has made, every Web page he has visited and instant-messaging exchange he has conducted since 2003. It also includes all of his health records, all of the labels of wine he has enjoyed and the recordings of a bicycle trip through Burgundy, where he tried to eat in as many starred restaurants as he couldHe collects the daily minutiae of his life and has the most extensive personal archive of its kind in the world.Mr Bell who in 2009, along with fellow researcher, Jim Gemmell, authored the book “Total Recall”, argues that — as strange as it sounds — a growing number of us will soon follow his lead. He wrote that by about 2020 our entire life history will be online and searchable. Location-aware smartphones and inexpensive digital memory storage in the “cloud” make the transition possible and inevitable. No one will have to fret about storing details of their lives in their heads anymore. We’ll have computers for that. And this revolution will “change what it means to be human,” he wrote.An interesting thought when you consider how much of our lives we put online now with the help of our phones and social media.While working with Microsoft on the SenseCam, OMG recognised the broader appeal of the device, and teamed up with media agency BBH to develop it for the consumer market.“The beauty of Autographer is that you don’t have to stop to take a photograph or spend your day looking at life through a lens,” Mr Randall, said. “You can live your experiences to the full while Autographer spontaneously captures the stories that happen all around you.“Photos are a great way to document and share life experiences, but they can sometimes be a bit predictable with the same postcard views and posed smiles — pointing a camera lens at people often changes the fabric of the moment. Photographers go to great lengths to capture life in an authentic and natural way and see the Autographer as a great new way of effortlessly doing this.”The company said it has spent a lot of time developing its wide-angle “eye-view” lens, which it believes is at the heart of the Autographer’s storytelling ability — giving a unique first-person perspective that allows the wearer to tell their story uninhibited as they see it."It will occupy a space somewhere between video and stills photography," says Nick Bolton, the chief executive of OMG. "The idea is that your pictures will tell a story."The company says Autographer would be ideal, for example, to record the events of a stag or hen do, a family day out or even your bike ride to work.“Imagine it — your wedding day from a new angle, your child’s first birthday captured for posterity, the spectacle of a festival in all its glory or a surprising view on an African safari.”On safari — yes. On my wedding day — not so much. That may take my level of geekiness to a new level, but I do think it would be fun to give it a go — just to see what the photos might be like.