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Researchers have figured out a way for your cellphone to determine if you are bored.
The paper titled “Detecting Boredom from Mobile Phone Usage” looked at 40 million logs from 54 mobile phone users over a two-week period.
The researchers from Germany and Spain wanted to find out if mobile phones were able to detect when their users were killing time and suggest a better use of their idle moments by recommending content or turning their attention to more useful activities.
The research looked at 35 features related to phone-usage, including whether the phone is connected to a headphone, whether it is charging, and the time the last incoming call.
The group was able to come up with an algorithm which is up to 83 per cent accurate at predicting if a mobile user is bored.
The algorithm could potentially be used in apps that could encourage users to watch a certain video, contact their friends, add an article to a read-later list, or do something that would foster introspection, reflection or creativity.
The paper will be presented next week at UbiComp in Japan.
