{"id":55185,"date":"2023-10-20T16:30:19","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/your-mobile-phone-knows-where-you-go-and-what-you-do-and-maybe-even-when-youre-feeling-down-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T16:30:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:30:19","slug":"your-mobile-phone-knows-where-you-go-and-what-you-do-and-maybe-even-when-youre-feeling-down-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/your-mobile-phone-knows-where-you-go-and-what-you-do-and-maybe-even-when-youre-feeling-down-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Your mobile phone knows where you go and what you do \u2013 and maybe even when you’re feeling down – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/em><\/span>Today\u2019s smartphones are equipped with powerful sensing capabilities. Using these sensors, your smartphone potentially has a record of how active you are, how much you sleep and where you go. If we look at the data those sensors gather, we can get a pretty good idea of what someone\u2019s typical behavior is like.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n When a person is depressed, their behavior often changes. You may lose interest in activities, experience changes in your sleep cycles or withdraw from social interactions. And your phone, typically close at hand, could be used to detect these behavior changes.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In a study<\/a> recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, we investigated whether a person\u2019s movements and activities as recorded by their smartphone signaled behavioral changes associated with depression. And we found that they are, in fact, closely correlated.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We recruited 28 participants, 14 with depressive symptoms and 14 without. We started the experiment by quantifying their depressive symptoms by using a test called patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9<\/a>). The PHQ-9 consists of nine questions asking about the presence of several symptoms of depression such as loss of interest, hopelessness, changes in sleep, tiredness and having trouble in concentration. It\u2019s a very common test. In fact, you might have taken it at your last doctor\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Then we collected data on GPS location and phone usage recorded by the built-in sensors on each participant\u2019s phone for two weeks. We also developed a sensor to calculate how long and how often participants used their phones. It tracked all phone activity except for calls.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Then, we developed algorithms that estimated certain behavioral markers that we thought might be related to depression. These markers included the patterns of movement though geographical space, the total distance a person moved during the two-week period, the number of locations visited, the speed at which the individual moved between locations, and the amount of time he or she spent in different locations.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, we analyzed the relationship between these markers and the severity of depressive symptoms.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\nHow did we use smartphones to detect depression?<\/h2>\n