SenSay: a context-aware mobile phone

TLDR

SenSay is a context‑aware mobile phone that adapts to dynamically changing environmental and physiological states. It uses accelerometers, light, and microphone sensors mounted on the body, a rule‑based decision module, and a state machine to adjust ringer volume, vibration, and alerts, provide call urgency feedback, suggest calls when idle, and integrate calendar and contact data. Threshold analyses demonstrate that sensor data trends can clearly distinguish among multiple user states.

Abstract

SenSay is a context-aware mobile phone that adapts to dynamically changing environmental and physiological states. In addition to manipulating ringer volume, vibration, and phone alerts, SenSay can provide remote callers with the ability to communicate the urgency of their calls, make call suggestions to users when they are idle, and provide the caller with feedback on the current status of the SenSay user. A number of sensors including accelerometers, light, and microphones are mounted at various points on the body to provide data about the user’s context. A decision module uses a set of rules to analyze the sensor data and manage a state machine composed of uninterruptible, idle, active and normal states. Results from our threshold analyses show a clear delineation can be made among several user states by examining sensor data trends. SenSay augments its contextual knowledge by tapping into applications such as electronic calendars, address books, and task lists.