Show puts newborn under scrutiny

The tiny guinea pig is the child of project leader Deb Roy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, the British weekly reports in next Saturday’s issue. Roy’s newborn son returned from hospital nine months ago and was immediately enrolled in what New Scientist sardonically calls the ‘‘Baby Truman Show’’, after the big brother movie The Truman Show.

His every movement and gurgle have been captured from 8 am to 10 pm every day, using 14 microphones and 11 one-megapixel ‘‘fisheye’’ video cameras attached to the ceilings of each room. Unlike reality television, Roy and his wife can switch the devices off when they choose or press an ‘‘oops’’ button to delete unwanted recordings before the data is downloaded to a Media Lab computer.

By recording a developing infant for 85 per cent of its waking life and in a natural environment, the scientists hope to understand day-by-day or even hour-by-hour changes that enable the child to assemble the building blocks of language.