Assessing Group Performance from Collective Behavior

The Human Dynamics research group at the MIT Media Laboratory showed that wearable technology can be used to measure face-to-face interactions and uncover behavioral patterns (Choudhury & Pentland, 2003; Pentland, 2006; Olguin-Olguin et al., 2009a, 2009b). They designed the Sociometric badges with sensors to detect in-person interactions, conversations, body movement, and proximity to others (Olguin Olguin, 2007). To maintain privacy, all communication content is not recorded, only integer data. They designed the badge to be similar to corporate RFID name identity cards. In this research report, they share two studies, which showed that behavior has a direct correlation with performance.