Collecting Sensor Data from Smart Devices
Project Description | How to participate| FAQProject description
The object of this project is to gather sensor data like accelerometer and gyroscope readings from smart devices under different conditions. We plan to analyze the collected data to characterize the sensors embedded in different devices from a security and privacy point of view. Your participation is voluntary and fully anonymous, we therefore, request participants to participate sincerely. Although your participation in this research may not benefit you personally right now, it will help us understand to what degree users might be vulnerable to website fingerprinting and thus help us create public awareness.
To gather sensor data from smart devices we have developed a web page. So, participants only need to visit the web page and do not need to install any apps.
We are careful in not violating user privacy and are therefore not tracking any personal data. Our project went through IRB review and since we are not collecting any personal data of users IRB office has confirmed that we do not require any IRB approval.
Feel free to contact us with any question or suggestion.
The tech report is available here.
How to participate
Participants need to fulfill two requirements:
- Use a smartphone or tablet (preferably a smartphone).
- Use the latest version of one of the following browsers- Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Safari.
To participate please click the following link: Our data collection web page.
A description of the different components of the webpage is give in the FAQ section.
To participate a user has to browse through our web pages in the following manner:
- First, participants are asked where they have placed their phone (we are mainly interested on placing the smart device on a flat table).
- Next, the user should select one of two possible settings under which data is to be collected.
- Lastly, when the user presses either of the buttons the data collection process starts. The buttons are disabled while data is being collected. We take 10 samples per setting. Each sample requires ~6 seconds, so each setting would require ~1 minute. Also, whenever data collection for one setting completes the corresponding button becomes disabled. User participation ends when data collection for both settings finish (please see the above images for more details).
FAQ (Frequently Anticipated Questions)
- What do the buttons on the web pages do?
- How long will this take?
- What kind of browser and OS versions are supported?
- How much bandwidth is used for uploading data?
- Where is the data stored?
- What is being measured and why?
- First web page: Select how the phone is placed for the data collection session.
- Proceed: Only when the device is on top of a flat surface should users proceed to the next step.
- Go to instruction page: Forwards the user to this page.
- The second web page: Provides options for selecting an experimental setting.
- Raw Data: Simply collects raw sensor readings. Provides us with base line measurement.
- Sine Wave (20 kHz): Plays a pure 20 kHz Sine wave while collecting sensor readings.
- Go to instruction page: Forwards the user to this page
At any given point the user could refresh the webpage, however, this will remove any previously stored states like the number of samples already taken out of 10.
- Chrome
- Opera
- Firefox (though you may run to some issues in Firefox)
- Safari
Also for any Android device the OS version should be >=4.0 and for any Apple product it should be at least iOS 4.0.