Manage Stress With Your Smartphone Buddy

The true value of any data is the meaning that you extract from it. This is shown by none better than the AIRS (Android Remote Sensing App), which uses all the sensors and data available to your Android device to indicate if you are stressed. This app was developed by a researcher Dirk Trossen at the University of Cambridge, whose aim was for people to manage their stress levels throughout the day. The app uses sensors to record noise levels, light levels, environmental conditions and monitors your messages,calls and social activity to understand your behavior. You can even use attached monitors to measure your pulse rates through the day.

Using an app called Storica, you can view visualizations of all the data collected throughout the day. Using this, you can easily detect the flash points of the day, when you were at the peak of anxiety. There are an impressive number of sensors available in the app, which can perform data mining on your chats to detect your mood, monitor decibel level values to analyze pitches. While it may seem creepy that it is monitoring everything you do, it can show a deep insight into the psyche of the person using it. According to Trossen, he will continue adding to the app, perhaps even introducing features such as prescriptions or diagnosis through the internet. Also, the app clearly states that all the data you are using is only stored locally, so users need not be worried about their personal data being used for deviant purposes. At the end of the day, an introspection into the things that caused stress will lead to action that can reduce and cure that stress. The app is available on the Google Play store as "AIRS - Record your life". How far smartphone apps have come!

What do you think about this app? Will it help in your daily life?