Outtakes: The Really Smart Phone

April 26, 2011

Portraits of Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and director of Human Dynamics Research at MIT’s Media Lab, at the Media Lab building at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Research by Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and director of Human Dynamics Research at MIT’s Media Lab, has been able to create models of human behavior using data collected by cell phones and cell phone usage. By analyzing human movement and phone usage patterns, Pentland’s research can reveal information about a person’s health, conversations, thoughts, and emotions. CREDIT: M. Scott Brauer for the Wall Street Journal

People cross at a crosswalk on Massachusetts Avenue on the campus of MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Research by Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and director of Human Dynamics Research at MIT’s Media Lab, has been able to create models of human behavior using data collected by cell phones and cell phone usage. By analyzing human movement and phone usage patterns, Pentland’s research can reveal information about a person’s health, conversations, thoughts, and emotions. CREDIT: M. Scott Brauer for the Wall Street Journal

Portraits of Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and director of Human Dynamics Research at MIT’s Media Lab, at the Media Lab building at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. On his cell phone is displayed an app that was used at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which tells users about their mood and level of jet lag based on movements and cell phone usage. Research by Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and director of Human Dynamics Research at MIT’s Media Lab, has been able to create models of human behavior using data collected by cell phones and cell phone usage. By analyzing human movement and phone usage patterns, Pentland’s research can reveal information about a person’s health, conversations, thoughts, and emotions. CREDIT: M. Scott Brauer for the Wall Street Journal

Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and director of Human Dynamics Research at MIT’s Media Lab, at the Media Lab building at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, displays the privacy settings for his lab’s application on his cell phone. The app controls privacy on data collected by cell phones which can lead to models of emotions, conversations, health, movement, and other human behaviors. Pentland’s research is careful to develop tools for users to control their privacy. Research by Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and director of Human Dynamics Research at MIT’s Media Lab, has been able to create models of human behavior using data collected by cell phones and cell phone usage. By analyzing human movement and phone usage patterns, Pentland’s research can reveal information about a person’s health, conversations, thoughts, and emotions. CREDIT: M. Scott Brauer for the Wall Street Journal

Here are a few images from a very short shoot at the MIT Media Lab about Dr. Alex "Sandy" Pentland's research modeling human behavior through the ways that people use cell phones. It's fascinating research, but difficult to photograph, since it's all on computers and cell phones. The shoot was rushed, but my picture got great play in the Wall Street Journal. The story is available online: The Really Smart Phone.