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PTSD-Monitoring App Captured the Psychological Effects of the Boston Bombing
the_newsbeagle writes "This DARPA-funded smartphone app is designed to monitor veterans for signs of depression and PTSD. It screens for signals of psychological distress in a number of ways; for example, the app looks for signs of social isolation (reduced number of phone calls and texts), physical isolation (the phone isn't leaving the house), and sleep disruption (the phone is used in the middle of the night). Interestingly, the company that invented the app was testing it in Boston at the time of the Boston marathon bombing, and reports that the app picked up signals of distress in the days after the attack."
and other obvious news at 11
for what the tinfoil hat crowd has to say about this
was testing it in Boston at the time of the Boston marathon bombing, and reports that the app picked up signals of distress in the days after the attack."
Would have been a bit more useful if it had picked up the stress in the days before the attack!
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
or compliance meter? Pacification gauge?
I for one welcome my software sicologist.
I wouldn't put it past the government to be the catalyst to initiate a stressful event for the sake of military testing. It wouldn't be the first time. http://www.policymic.com/articles/16852/the-federal-reserve-bomb-plot-why-the-fbi-helped-a-terrorist-try-to-blow-up-the-fed
After all, do YOU know anyone that "willingly" opted in to download this app? I wonder if it's already built into some phones... http://cryptome.org/2013/08/assange-google-nsa.htm
So the plan is to install this app on everyone's phone looking for the "black swan" event which triggers "PTSD" in a non-war environment?
Am I alone in wondering why this is released now (months later)?
One reason why the phone hasn't left the house in the Boston metro area was that the police locked down most of the city for a few days. Subway trains and buses weren't running. Logan international airport was open though.
interesting article
That is all.
It's not the phone company it's a company that is working on making issues less stressful and problem resolution more effective through data analysis that people may not knowingly perceive. Really interesting stuff actually.
Even better, TFA indicated that the big clue that people were affected was people leaving less interactive data for analysis. Not feeding into their BS is a sign that you are sick apparently.
... the app looks for signs of social isolation (reduced number of phone calls and texts), physical isolation (the phone isn't leaving the house), and sleep disruption (the phone is used in the middle of the night).
wouldn't this cover a lot of basement dwellers here on slashdot?
So if I forget my phone at home before heading out for the weekend are they going to think I have PTSD or depressed and then come to my home and take away any guns I own? How Orwellian...
in a hut in the jungle lived a nigger, this was not one of those neat, cheerful beech huts you see at the sea side, nor was it an efficient workshop hut, where a skilled workman makes a living. this was a stinking, shit-covered nigger's hut,
I'm sure that the company had a number of normals -- people living someplace other than Boston (Singapore? London? Moscow?) -- to compare to their Boston subjects.
Actually, I'm not very sure about that.
This was a standard clinical study with 100 fully-aware participants trying to improve PTSD diagnosis to help the incidents of suicide and psychological issues in returning vets. You've got plenty of other things to gripe about with PATRIOT / PRISM / etc., but for crying out loud this isn't one of them.
I'd say the more depressing is that I see 4 posts by numbered Slashdotters and not one even read the first sentence of the summary.
Here it is again:
This DARPA-funded smartphone app is designed to monitor veterans for signs of depression and PTSD.
Smartphone app, as in, it has to be installed on the phone and records behavior to send off to some user approved (even if by obscure yes/no choice) observer to look for suspicious behavior trends.
There were volunteers, they were in Boston, and the marathon got bombed during the testing phase. A significant portion of the volunteers showed the warning behaviors in the days afterward. This is all in the summary, but I suppose actually reading the whole summary and devising an informed post would take too long. Of course, one of the signs "not leaving the house" was probably due to the not-quite-martial-law that was not-exactly-imposed on the city of Boston for those days.
because I don't make a lot of phone calls/texts (preferring to use email on my laptop), I'm physically isolated (because I work from my home and am a home-body any way), and I experience sleep disruption (because I work all hours of the day).
I KNEW IT!
Don't have time for phone calls. Don't get out much. Up all night.
Yeah, they noticed a change in activity.
Goes along the lines of "If you don't want to be noticed, act normal."
The app looks at phone usage and location patterns. These tasks can very easily be accomplished by the phone company reading your call and location log. In most places this data is available to law enforcement without a warrant. So while this particular study was made with consent of its participants, it is quite possible that this is being done to each and every one of us without our knowledge or consent. Implement a few "red-flag" conditions and you've got yourself a pre-crime detector.
If I have to code I work most effectively between 11pm and 3am. I used to tex and call all day and all over night till I married. When I divorced my call rate fell to 5 per month. I chat if I have to talk to anybody. Going out once a month to drink with beer buddies. When I work on something I may forget about eating for a day or tow and going out well. If I get to coding which is rare these days I tend to do it best between 10pm and 3am when none of the sorry excuses for an engineer that I have to work with disturbs me much. I guess some intelligence would help to tune it even to deviants like me but I tend to change routine drastically from time to time. I guess the monitoring agency would go crazy after few such changes of routine. Besides what is the point of this if NSA knows it all anyway?
You could always just troll them and put leave your phone at home attached to a paint mixer that shakes the phone at random intervals between 8pm and 8am but that otherwise just lets the phone sit there doing nothing while plugged in. That would mess with there data, while you go use a disposable pay as you go phone.
Maybe that is why the NSA is so intent on collecting the CDR (call detail records) data from Verizon, and others. Maybe it is really the meta data about the calls that they are after as a way to profile potential terrorists?
Still don't like it, but at least this would be a logical thing for them to do.
i am sure that every veteran is a phone toting teenager.
The problem with this measurement is that it's only to be expected for there to be less activity at the time. When you take into account the heavy militarized police/military/occupational force that flooded into Boston, you have to expect that social communications and outings will decrease significantly.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
didn't leave the house during a lock-down, was up all night glued to CNN.
mmm hmm
Dozens of schools are shot up wry year in the u.s., death on the roads is in the thousands, and you're all running scared of a couple of twats that could have killed an order of magnitude more people by buying a rifle and shooting up a mall or cinema.
"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself – anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called."
-- George Orwell, 1984
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
what? a smart phone app to reach this conclusion? fucking clones
I saw a guy in the military laugh when he saw the explosion video...basically it wasn't a big deal to him.
Eh, people automatically assume the worst and then spout off about it, "we're doomed, we suck," etc. It's the result of a university education that emphasizes the negative. Students are literally never taught that America has done anything good.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Um... wasn't there a citywide lockdown where they told everyone to stay in their houses? Wouldn't that trigger this app? Doesn't seem like anything surprising.
Why is this story not tagged as a slashvertisement? There is a link to the company, and many comments have pointed out that the town was on lockdown triggering the simple things this app supposedly monitors.
Yet another amazing coincidence that the "bombers" had connections with the spooks and there was a "training" excercise on the day. Without one of these terror scares at least every quarter we might wonder why we even need the Stazi to "protect" us.
Bombing was staged
Staged Boston Marathon Bombing Drill!
Bombing Makeup Artist
could make post traumatic stress a "Disorder"
I'd have thought not being stressed after a trauma would be more alarming, but even that wouldn't necessarily be a fucking disorder...
All the articles I found, linked from here or at second-level links, talked about "an app" or "the app" but never named, or linked to, any app. Maybe I'm missing something, but was this app only available for a short period of time, and now is no longer available?
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
Actually, this is one of them. Sorry. You are dead wrong.
It sits right along side all those other things you mentioned. Shoulder to shoulder.
I'm just really hoping that they are able to perfect parking for cars automatically. I'd really like to be able to get out of my car at a friends house where there is no parking and have the car park itself in the nearest spot a few blocks away. Then when it's time to leave summon the car and have it pick me up at the front door. I just can't wait until people start 'drunk driving' and waking up in front of their ex's house or Las Vegas.
for example, the app looks for signs of social isolation (reduced number of phone calls and texts), physical isolation (the phone isn't leaving the house), and sleep disruption (the phone is used in the middle of the night)
So how many stereotypes can we diagnose with PTSD who have never experienced TS in their life? :D It's a good thing DARPA continues to want to apply 1 rule to the entirety of everything. Wouldn't want to use the right tool for the job, that might actually save money!
PTDS is such a cute and round-edged name intended to gloss over the harsh fact of shell-shock to the rest of society. "Hey, Johnny came back from life under nearly constant artillery strikes and having to see the most horrifying things for four years, but he just has PTSD which is super common and not a big deal".
We used to call that shit shellshock. It was a strong word with striking connotations, for a reason.
I don't think "literally" means what you think it does...
What if someone prefers to meet others in person, leaves the phone at home and has a night job?