Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SENSIBLE ORGANIZATIONS
http://hd.media.mit.edu/sensible.html

Alex (Sandy) Pentland, Peter A. Gloor, Daniel Olguin Olguin, Casper Lassenius (Aalto University)

We are applying the technology of reality mining, which uses sensor data to extract subtle patterns that predict future human behavior. These predictive patterns begin with "honest signals," human behaviors that evolved from ancient primate signaling mechanisms, and which are major factors in human decision making in everything from job interviews to first dates. By using data from mobile phones, electronic ID badges, or digital media to track these honest signals, we can create a "god's eye" view of how the people interact, and even "see" the rhythms of interaction for everyone in a city.

Our research on reality mining infers human relationships and behavior by applying data-mining algorithms to information collected by body-worn sensors that can measure location, physical activity, and more. The impact of these tools and methods touches all aspects of our daily lives. Models generated by analyzing data from both individuals and groups could enable automated security settings, smart personal assistants, and monitoring of personal and community health. Of particular interest is the analysis of “honest signals of creativity” extending the concept of “flow” to the group level trying to better understand what drives team creativity by looking at interaction patterns of team members. We are currently working on different projects, among others studying social signals of software developers in distributed and co-located teams, of researchers in the health care area, school children participating in extracurricular science activities, and Jazz musicians.

Management insights based on Honest Signals were Named a "Breakthrough Idea of 2009" by Harvard Business Review, and Reality Mining was declared "a technology poised to change the world" by Technology Review.

See these articles:

American Scientist: To Signal Is Human

Nature: Secret Signals

Videos:

World Economic

Forum Honest Signals

Sensible Organizations

Selected Papers

Gloor, P. Oster, D. Fischbach, K. JazzFlow – Analyzing “Group Flow” among Jazz Musicians Through “Honest Signals”. “Artificial Intelligence” Springer, 2013

Gloor, P. Grippa, F. Putzke, J. Lassenius, C. Fuehres, H. Fischbach, K. Schoder, D. (2012) Measuring Social Capital in Creative Teams Through Sociometric Sensors International Journal of Organisational Design and Engineering, 2(2). 2012

The Virtual Mirror: Reflecting on Your Social and Psychological Self to Increase Organizational Creativity (April 2009) P. Gloor, D. Oster, O. Raz, A. Pentland, D. Schoder Int’l Studies of Management and Organization.

Wearable Sensors for Pervasive Healthcare Management (April 2009) Daniel Olguin Olguin, Peter A. Gloor, and Alex (Sandy) Pentland 3rd International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare. London, UK. April 2009.

Studying Microscopic Peer-to-Peer Communication Patterns (August 2007) Peter A. Gloor, Daniel Oster, Johannes Putzke, Kai Fischback, Detlef Schoder, Koji Ara, Taemie J. Kim, Robert Laubacher, Akshay Mohan, Daniel Olguin Olguin, Alex (Sandy) Pentland, and Bejamin N. Waber Americas Conference on Information Systems. Keystone, Colorado. August 9-12, 2007

For a full list of articles, click here.

 

For further information contact Sandy (Alex) Pentland