Mobile phone sensing: Current trends and challenges

Abstract

The efforts to improve user experience and expand the services offered through mobile phones over the past few years have led to new ways of recollecting data and inferring knowledge about people and their surroundings. This emerging area is known as mobile phone sensing and has been supported by a plethora of devices and sensors. Mobile phone sensing has enabled researchers to migrate from presumably bias-prone surveys and large observational teams to accurate, timely, and in-situ data collection about subjects of research. In doing so, this area has been experiencing different waves of technological development. In this paper, we analyze and discuss three waves of development and present a review of related literature in the area.