This site reports on developments in our use of digital sensors for social research. It will become a resource for training courses on the methodological, technical and ethical considerations in applying these newly-emerging technologies.
There’s growing interest in digital sensors for observing social life, and for supplementing social science research methods — drawing on developments in fixed, mobile and wearable sensors as part of the growing Internet of Things (IoT), including smart homes, smart cities, smart energy use, etc.).
The Centre for Research in Social Simulation (CRESS), based in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey, has been conducting fieldwork in households (HomeSense), as a testbed to trial and demonstrate what can be observed by using sensors, and to build training and capacity resources with the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM).
The HomeSense project is funded by the ESRC.
