Sociosensor: Measuring user behavior and experience with mobile devices
I. Mulder1, G.H. ter Hofte1 and J. Kort2
1Telematica Instituut, Enschede, The Netherlands
2TNO Information and Communication Technology, Groningen, The Netherlands
Man is a social being, continuously and dynamically adapting to his social
context. Current
research into context-aware and mobile computing stresses the relevance
of using context
information in applications. However, despite occasional design successes,
researchers are
still lacking a systematic understanding which context information is
relevant in what kind
of situation and which kinds of services.
We exploit mobile devices such as PDAs and smartphones as an instrument
for the scientific investigation into the dynamics of social phenomena.
Mobile devices tend to travel along with people wherever they are and
whatever they are doing, and consequently enter various social contexts.
This literally puts these devices in an ideal position to capture several
aspects of social phenomena.
In this paper, we describe Sociosensor, an extensible toolkit that exploits
the hardware
sensors and software capabilities of contemporary mobile devices to capture
objective data
about dynamic social interaction and social context together with subjective
data about
social experiences. We focus on software-based sensors that capture objective
data about
social context factors, such as proximity, communication and relation,
using technologies
currently widely available to programmers of smart mobile client applications,
such as
infrared, Bluetooth, WLAN, audio microphone, GPS, GSM cell-ID, phone/E-mail/IM
logs and
contact lists. In addition to software that logs objective information,
we focus on experience
sampling software that can query the user at multiple pseudo-random times
for subjective
information such as opinions and feelings.
Thus, we provide social sciences with an instrument to gain a much deeper,
detailed and dynamic insight into these phenomena and their relations,
which in turn informs the design of successful context-aware applications.
In addition to such formative evaluation for design, the Sociosensor toolkit
can also be extended with modules allowing summative evaluation of application
usage in context. Sociosensor not only strengthens this crucial reciprocal
link between evaluation and design, but also provides benefits to a broader
audience of scientic communities including medical/biological sciences
such as epidemiology.
Paper presented
at Measuring Behavior 2005
, 5th International Conference on Methods and Techniques
in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The
Netherlands.
© 2005 Noldus
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