Yoshihiro Wakisaka

Predicting flow state in daily work through continuous sensing of motion rhythm

We have constructed a new application of continuous sensing of human physiological data during daily a business setting. By capturing the subtle changes and differences in motion rhythm detected through an accelerator rather than trying to identify the context of human activities, we are envisioning the prediction of a persons psychological flow state, i.e., the engagement in ones task. A badge-shaped wearable sensor device called “Business Microscope” was developed and deployed in a real organization, an office supply firm, for one month to study how effectively flow states could be measured during daily work. We found that even though each subject behaved at different motion rhythms when they were in flow, the consistency of motion rhythm around 2 to 3 Hz was correlated with the richness of flow during work (r=0.47, p<0.01).

Beam-scan sensor node: Reliable sensing of human interactions in organization

We have developed a wearable sensor node with a low power and high detection rate by using sequential control of multiple infrared (IR) modules. Conventional sensor nodes are not practical in terms of size, sensing performance, and working hours. Therefore, we devised a name-tag-size (73 × 98 × 9 mm) sensor node, which captures face-to-face interactions within 2 meters and within an angle of 60°. The sensor node weighs 62 grams and works for more than twenty hours with a small 5-gram Li-ion battery. The sensor uses the beam-scan technique, in which four infrared modules, placed horizontally on the node, are controlled to be on and off sequentially, and this operation is done synchronously with other nodes. The beam-scan technique enables low-power operation with a consumption current of 7.2 mA and 21 hours of operation. We had tested the sensor node in a field trial that collected sensor data for six months from 20 people and had demonstrated that this technique is practical. Feedback from sensing data reminded us of the importance of meeting frequency and this improved our work habits.

Knowledge-creating behavior index for improving knowledge workers' productivity

Improving the productivity of knowledge workers is becoming a major issue in corporate management in the 21st century. “Business Microscope” is a sensornet application designed to improve organizations. Organizational improvement is facilitated by the visualization of each workers behavior. In addition, the improvement can be accelerated further by presenting a beneficial index. In this paper, we propose a novel index for organizational improvement using Business Microscope. Thus, “active face-to-face interaction” and “concentration time” are proposed as an effective knowledge-creating behavior index, and a knowledge-creating behavior balance graph is developed as a visualization application. We focus here on the quality of communication measured from gestures in face-to-face interactions. Additionally, the behavior index is obtained from infrared sensor data and acceleration sensor data. As a result of applying this proposed application to a real organization, we were able to identify which worker and organization problems need to be improved. The effectiveness of the productivity analysis on knowledge workers was also confirmed.

Visualization of knowledge-creation process using face-to-face communication data

No firm can survive without building a mechanism to create knowledge in the 21st century. The knowledge-creation theory by Nonaka has successfully generalized a knowledge-creation process in an organization. However, nobody has found a quantitative method for evaluating the process. This paper proposes a technique of visualizing the knowledge-creation process by plotting graphs of face-to-face contact time and number of people contacted. We applied the data of face-to-face communication of an organization to our proposed technique and confirmed that it represented dynamics of the knowledge-creation process. This technique will provide a new method of corporate management.