It has long been recognized that ubiquitous information access brings enormous benefits but also creates a plethora of devices and services that are competing for our attention. With mobile devices this is a particular serious concern for drivers, pedestrians, and other traffic participants, but understanding attention patterns can also be beneficial for entertainment services. In this talk, I will discuss our work towards mobile devices that can accurately track user attention - from devices that determine when we drive, over devices that recognize their users by touch, to devices that tracking what a users are looking or pointing at. These techniques can be expected to enable systems that help us better navigate distractions and understand what services and content capture our attention.
Marco Gruteser is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University and a member of the Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB). He is a pioneer in the area of location privacy and also recognized for his work on connected vehicle applications. Beyond these topics, his more than hundred peer-reviewed articles and patents span a wide range of wireless, mobile systems, and pervasive computing issues. He received his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Colorado in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and has held research and visiting positions at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center and Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the executive committee of ACM SIGMOBILE. His recognitions include an NSF CAREER award, a Rutgers Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence, as well as best paper awards at ACM MobiCom 2012, ACM MobiCom 2011 and ACM MobiSys 2010. His work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the MIT Technology Review, NPR, the New York Times, and CNN TV.