Abstract
There has been increasing interest in deploying IoT devices to study human
behaviour in locations such as homes and offices. Such devices can be deployed
in a laboratory or `in the wild' in natural environments. The latter allows one
to collect behavioural data that is not contaminated by the artificiality of a
laboratory experiment. Using IoT devices in ordinary environments also brings
the benefits of reduced cost, as compared with lab experiments, and less
disturbance to the participants' daily routines which in turn helps with
recruiting them into the research. However, in this case, it is essential to
have an IoT infrastructure that can be easily and swiftly installed and from
which real-time data can be securely and straightforwardly collected. In this
paper, we present MakeSense, an IoT testbed that enables real-world
experimentation for large scale social research on indoor activities through
real-time monitoring and/or situation-aware applications. The testbed features
quick setup, flexibility in deployment, the integration of a range of IoT
devices, resilience, and scalability. We also present two case studies to
demonstrate the use of the testbed, one in homes and one in offices.