Deb Roy: The birth of a word
In this TED video, Deb Roy talks about how by taping almost everything that is said or done in his his house, he assembled a rich dataset that captured (among other things) deep insight into how/when his son learned words.
Of course, this kind of research can start people thinking that “I don’t want to record everything in my life!” but I think the implications more far-reaching than privacy concerns alone.
More than anything, I’m fascinated about the possibilities of video and audio data mining in order to study human behavior. The sheer volume of data available through continuous capture lends itself to using regression and other modeling tools to identify patterns that are too subtle for mere observation to pick up on.
1. His presentation shows what is possible in terms of re-creating the real world using very flat-looking tools like overheard video recorders. It creates new possibilities in terms of monitoring behavior through truly non-obtrusive means - increasing the validity of the results. Naturally, I don’t imagine this to be fool proof, as some people might never really ‘get used’ to being taped constantly.
2. The idea of creating a permanent memory bank can be considered to be a family service - allowing families that live great distances from their younger generations to peek into developments (especially major life moments) from afar.
3. I like the fact that he spent time talking about context for learning. It is amazing to see the possibility to model both by location and ‘actor’ - i.e., knowing which combinations of people, situations and places encoded new information in his child’s development.
4. Naturally, as a marketer I’m fascinated to understand how conversations can be triggered by interaction with content, whether online or on TV, and being able to analyse how these different media interact with a family has my mouth watering.
Enjoy.
Via TED
