MIT Badges Track Real- Time Social Interactions

MIT researchers created special "badges" for attendees at a recent Media Lab event. The badges "use an infrared sensor to gather data about FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTIONS, a wireless radio to collect data regarding proximity to other badges and send it to a central computer, an accelerometer to track motion of the participant, and a microphone to monitor speech patterns." A nearby computer created a real-time social graph during the event, showing who interacted with whom, and for how long. The graph was publicly displayed. Researchers said that simply showing individuals their "networking patterns" is enough to get them to change them. For example, they may learn they interact only with people they already know.