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Identifying and facilitating social interaction with a wearable wireless sensor network

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Abstract

We have designed a highly versatile badge system to facilitate a variety of interaction at large professional or social events and serve as a platform for conducting research into human dynamics. The badges are equipped with a large LED display, wireless infrared and radio frequency networking, and a host of sensors to collect data that we have used to develop features and algorithms aimed at classifying and predicting individual and group behavior. This paper overviews our badge system, describes the interactions and capabilities that it enabled for the wearers, and presents data collected over several large deployments. This data is analyzed to track and socially classify the attendees, predict their interest in other people and demonstration installations, profile the restlessness of a crowd in an auditorium, and otherwise track the evolution and dynamics of the events at which the badges were run.

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Acknowledgments

We thank many of our colleagues at the MIT Media Lab who participated in the UbER-Badge project, namely Mark Feldmeier for badge mechanics, Matt Malinowski helping with badge construction, Lisa Lieberson for logistics, Missy Corley and Michael Broxton for fabrication help, Wen Dong for help with audio analysis, Walter Bender for analyzing and disseminating bookmark data to event attendees, and Ron Caneel and Anmol Madan for their comments. We also thank our industrial partners, namely Highlands and Islands for the collaboration in Scotland and British Telecom and Ricoh for their partial sponsorship of the badge fabrication. We thank MEMSIC for donating the badge accelerometers. This project was supported by the Things That Think Consortium and the other sponsors of the MIT Media Lab.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MIT Media Lab, Responsive Environments Group, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Joseph A. Paradiso, Mathew Laibowitz & Ryan Aylward

  2. MIT Media Lab, Human Dynamics Group, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Jonathan Gips & Alex Pentland

  3. MIT Media Lab, Ambient Intelligence Group, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Sajid Sadi, David Merrill & Pattie Maes

Authors
  1. Joseph A. Paradiso
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  2. Jonathan Gips
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  3. Mathew Laibowitz
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  4. Sajid Sadi
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  5. David Merrill
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  6. Ryan Aylward
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  7. Pattie Maes
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  8. Alex Pentland
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Correspondence to Joseph A. Paradiso.

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Paradiso, J.A., Gips, J., Laibowitz, M. et al. Identifying and facilitating social interaction with a wearable wireless sensor network. Pers Ubiquit Comput 14, 137–152 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-009-0239-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-009-0239-2

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