Mobile Sensing: Leveraging Machine Learning for Efficient Human Behavior Modeling

Smartphones can collect millions of data points from each of its users daily, contributing to a significant change in how the healthcare community approaches health monitoring. This paper provides a framework for how smartphone sensor data can be collected, cleaned, stored, and modeled to effectively predict human states as a step towards health monitoring. To develop robust contextual models, a three-week study was conducted to collect data through a mobile crowdsensing application named Sensus. In this study, participants used multiple sensing strategies, ranging from infrequent sampling to continuous sampling, to determine the effect each has on data integrity and battery life. For a future study, a dynamic data collection strategy was developed that uses a machine learning model trained on existing data collected from 220 participants to forecast when a smartphone will be active and trigger sensor sampling accordingly. Results of this study include 1) extraction of model features that deliver maximized data quality with minimized battery consumption as compared to pre-existing baseline models, 2) implementation of context-driven modeling of user smartphone data on user's contextual environment, and 3) customization of a time-series database for optimized data queries used in metadata visualizations. The adaptive sensing models produced could be used in future large population studies that efficiently examine patterns of behavior in multiple individuals over extended periods to identify disease indicators present in an average user’s daily life.