Proactive App Detects Boredom

A new app has been designed to detect if people are bored and them bombard them with entertainment.

15:58 03 September 2015

A team of researchers from Telefonica Research in Barcelona has developed an app that can predict boredom with 83per cent accuracy. It uses an algorithm that analyses how a person is using the phone. Once the user start fiddling with their smartphone, the app bombard them with entertainment.

 

In a study conducted to test the app, participants were asked which time of the day they felt was the least entertaining, which was used alongside information about what they were doing with their smartphone to predict their mood at any given time. If the user is deemed bored, they are nagged into reading a news article.

 

M. Ehsan Hoque, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Rochester, said the research was interesting because it links smartphone usage to a mental state.

 

"We know boredom leads to depression, so if you can infer the person is bored, you can do something about it."