The CommonSense Platform for Conducting Multiple Participant Field-Experiments Using Mobile-Phones

Authors: Y. Hoffner, Y. Rusho, S. Rubach, S. Abargil

Abstract:

This paper presents CommonSense, a platform that provides researchers with the infrastructure and tools that enable the efficient and smooth creation, execution and processing of multiple participant experiments taking place outside the laboratory environment. The platform provides the infrastructure and tools to accompany the researchers throughout the life cycle of an experiment – from its inception, through its execution, to its processing and termination. The approach of our platform is based on providing a comprehensive solution, which puts emphasis on the support for the entire life-cycle of an experiment, starting from its definition, the setting up and the configuration of the platform, through the management of the experiment itself and its post processing. Some of the components that support those processes are constructed and configured automatically from the experiment definition.

Keywords: Mobile applications, mobile experiments, web experiments, software system architecture.

References:

[1] G. Miller, “The Smartphone Psychology Manifesto,” Perspect. Psychol. Sci., vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 221–237, May 2012.
[2] K. Hochberg, J. Kuhn, and A. Müller, “Using Smartphones as Experimental Tools—Effects on Interest, Curiosity, and Learning in Physics Education,” J. Sci. Educ. Technol., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 385–403, Oct. 2018.
[3] J. Kuhn and P. Vogt, “Applications and Examples of Experiments with Mobile Phones and Smartphones in Physics Lessons,” Front. Sensors, vol. 1, no. 4, 2013.
[4] J. Kukkonen, E. Lagerspetz, P. Nurmi, and M. Andersson, “BeTelGeuse: A platform for gathering and processing situational data,” IEEE Pervasive Comput., vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 49–56, 2009.
[5] K. K. Rachuri, M. Musolesi, C. Mascolo, P. J. Rentfrow, C. Longworth, and A. Aucinas, “EmotionSense: A mobile phones based adaptive platform for experimental social psychology research,” in UbiComp’10 - Proceedings of the 2010 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, pp. 281–290. 2010.
[6] A. Campbell and S. Eisenman, “Cenceme: Injecting sensing presence into social network applications using mobile phones (demo abstract),” Demo at ACM MobiHoc 2008.
[7] E. Miluzzo, N. D. Lane, S. B. Eisenman, and A. T. Campbell, “CenceMe-Injecting Sensing Presence into Social Networking Applications,” Smart Sensing and Context, Second European Conference, EuroSSC, 2007.
[8] S. B. Eisenman, N. D. Lane, E. Miluzzo, R. A. Peterson, G.-S. Ahn, and A. T. Campbell, “MetroSense Project: People-Centric Sensing at Scale,” Work. World-Sensor-Web, pp. 6–11, 2006.