Capturing Conversational Participation in a Ubiquitous Sensor Environment

We propose the application of ubiquitous sensor technology to capturing and analyzing the dynamics of multi-party human-to-human conversational interactions. Based on a model of conversational participation structure, we present an analysis of conversational interactions in the open interaction space of a poster presentation session. We argue that the patterns of transition of the conversational roles each participant plays in conversational interactions can be captured through analysis of the participants' exchange of verbal and non-verbal information in conversations. Furthermore, we suggest that this dynamics of conversation participation structures captured in the ubiquitous sensor environment provides us with a new method for summarizing and displaying human memories and experiences.