Activity Recognition for the Mind: Toward a Cognitive "Quantified Self"

Applying mobile sensing technology to cognitive tasks will enable novel forms of activity recognition. Physical activity recognition technology has become mainstream-many dedicated mobile devices and smartphone apps count the steps we climb or the miles we run. What if devices and apps were also available that could count the words we read and how far we've progressed in our learning? The authors of this article demonstrate that mobile eye tracking can be used to do just that. Focusing on reading habits, they've prototyped cognitive activity recognition systems that monitor what and how much users read as well as how much they understand. Such systems could revolutionize teaching, learning, and assessment both inside and outside the classroom. Further, as sensing technology improves, activity recognition could be extended to other cognitive tasks including concentrating, retaining information, and auditory or visual processing. While this research is extremely exciting, it also raises numerous ethical questions-for example, who should know what we read or how much we understand?