MIT researchers created special “badges” for attendees at a recent Media Lab event. The badges “use an infrared sensor to gather info about FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTIONS, a wireless radio to gather goods regarding proximity to other badges and send it to a central computer, an accelerometer to track motion of the participant, and a microphone

to monitor speech patterns.” A nearby computer created a real-time social graph during the event, showing who interacted with whom, and for how lengthy. The graph was publicly displayed. Researchers said that simply showing individuals their “networking patterns” is decent to get them to change them. For example, they may learn they interact only with society they already know.