Abstract
Collecting experimental data from multiple sensing devices has just recently become quite popular in behavioral and social sciences. Among existing devices, mobile phones stand out as they allow researchers to collect data from individuals in an unbiased, precise, unobtrusive, and timely manner. Current mobile sensing applications are typically developed from scratch, provide no reusable components, and frequently do not take advantage of the devices’ processing capabilities. In light of such limitations, this work presents a novel tool that leverages mobile phones not only to collect data via their sensors but also to process them on the device as soon as they are gathered. The tool provides researchers with easy-to-use services that allow them to configure the required processing routines on the mobile phones. This work proposes a new approach for rapid deployment of sensing campaigns targeted at scientists with basic technical knowledge and requiring low effort. We performed an evaluation aimed at determining whether there is a significant improvement in terms of user effectiveness and efficiency in the definition of new components. The results suggest that the proposed tool speeds up the time and reduces the effort taken for setting up and deploying a sensing campaign.
Highlights
Collecting data from humans has always been both a paramount and challenging task for researchers.[1,2] data are virtually needed to conduct any experiment or field investigation, obtaining such data is not always easy or even feasible
We performed an evaluation aimed at determining whether there is a significant improvement in terms of user effectiveness and user efficiency in the definition of new components using the proposed approach
We performed an evaluation mainly aimed at determining whether there is a significant improvement in terms of user effectiveness and user efficiency in the definition of components
Summary
Collecting data from humans has always been both a paramount and challenging task for researchers.[1,2] data are virtually needed to conduct any experiment or field investigation, obtaining such data is not always easy or even feasible This is especially true for social and clinical studies, where relatively large groups of people or cohorts are to be observed in a natural setting, with multiple situations and variables to be measured. Mobile phone-based sensing, referred broadly to as mobile sensing, has emerged as a method used to assist the required work to obtain such data.[3] Mobile phones (or smartphones) are suitable for this kind of activities due to their inherent characteristics: portable, unobtrusive, ubiquitous, relatively easy to acquire, and affordable. These types of devices have sensors that allow researchers to obtain unbiased data about users and their environment.[4,5] since mobile phones are small-sized computers, they have storage, processing, and communications capabilities that can be exploited by developing applications that take advantage of those
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