Sociometric badges: Using sensor technology to capture new forms of collaboration

Abstract

SummaryThis article introduces sociometric badges as a research tool that captures with great accuracy fine-scale speech patterns and body movements among a group of individuals at a scale that heretofore has been impossible in groups and teams studies. Such a tool offers great potential for studying the changing ecology of team structures and new modes of collaboration. Team boundaries are blurring as members disperse across multiple cultures, convene through various media, and operate in new configurations. As the how and why of collaboration evolves, an opportunity emerges to reassess the methods used to capture these interactions and to identify new tools that might help us create synergies across existing approaches to teams research. We offer sociometric badges as a complement to existing data collection methods-one that is well-positioned to capture real-time collaboration in new forms of teams. Used as one component in a multi-method approach, sociometric badges can capture what an observer or cross-sectional survey might miss, contributing to a more accurate understanding of group dynamics in new teams. We also revisit traditional teams research to suggest how we might use these badges to tackle long-standing challenges. We conclude with three case studies demonstrating potential applications of these sociometric badges.

Empowering public service workers to face bystander conflict: Enhancing resources through a training intervention

“…Using innovative ways for data collection, such as wearable sensory badges, one could accurately measure a range of behaviours including speech patterns and body movements (see, e.g., Olguín et al ., ). Although now predominantly used in intra‐organizational settings (e.g., Kim, McFee, Olguín, Waber, & Pentland, ), exploring the possibilities in settings outside the organizational walls may be fruitful.…”

Using sensor technology to capture the structure and content of team interactions in medical emergency teams during stressful moments

“…Some researchers focus on the content of the interaction, for example, by using observation schema that identify what team members say, such as the number of agreements, suggestions, or opinions in team conversations (e.g., Atwal & Caldwell, 2005;Hoogeboom & Wilderom, 2015). Others focus on the structure of the conversation, such as which team member is speaking, the number of interruptions or the degree of turn-taking, regardless of the content (Kim, McFee, Olguin Olguin, Waber, & Pentland, 2012;Koudenburg, Postmes, & Gordijn, 2017;Pugliese, Nicholson, & Bezemer, 2015). For example, when providing teams real-time feedback on conversational balance (i.e.…”

“…Nowadays, technical and methodological advances allow us to capture team interactions more precisely (Molenaar, 2014). One of the available, but to date less frequently used, devices is the sociometric badge (Kim et al, 2012): a wearable that includes several types of technology, namely Bluetooth, an infrared sensor, an accelerometer and a microphone. Either when used in isolation or when combined with other sensors, the badges allow for fine-grained analysis of the structure of verbal team interactions.…”

“…Sociometric badges were used to assess the structure of team interactions (Kim et al, 2012). Sociometric badges are wearables distributed by Humanyze (a spin-out of the MIT Media Lab) that measure proximity, body movement and speech features using respectively Bluetooth, infrared, an accelerometer and microphones.…”

Systematic evaluation of social behaviour modelling with a single accelerometer

“…Recent advances in sensor technology and signal processing have made it possible to automatically extract features reflecting body language and to relate these to the person's state of mind, both in the lab [1,6] and outside [7,8]. However, up till now, these effects have been measured in relatively clean conditions and typically on a small scale [1,9].…”