Datawear: Self-reflection on the Go or How to Ethically Use Wearable Cameras for Research

A growing number of studies use wearable sensors, including cameras, to detect user activity patterns. When an object of academic investigation, these patterns are interpreted by researchers and conclusions are drawn about people's habits and routines. Alternatively, interpretations are provided by users themselves during extensive post-study interviews. Such approaches inevitably expose personal data collected about individuals to researchers, which can potentially change the behavior under investigation. We introduce a new approach to using wearable sensor data in research. It allows people to interpret and self-reflect on their data and submit for investigation only reflections, without sharing their raw data. In this interactivity, we present and discuss the Datawear mobile application prototype, which is designed to conduct "in the wild" studies of personal experiences.