SoCS: Collaborative Research: Local Community Crowdsourcing of Physical-World Tasks with Myrmex

该项目将设计和实施“Myrmex”，这是一个用于物理世界任务的新型众包系统。例如，一位年长的社区成员可以使用Myrmex帮助从远程邮局获取邮件，因为系统会将该任务分配给经常经过该邮局的参与者。Myrmex利用计算机的能力（监控、匹配参与者和任务）来促进人类活动（分配和执行任务）。该项目将：1)开发新的隐私保护方法，用于位置和上下文跟踪；2)设计并实施激励措施，鼓励人们持续使用新的社会制度；3)创建并实现最佳时间和地点的模型，以通知参与者并为其提供任务。更广泛的影响：Myrmex系统将有助于加强社区内的联系和连通性，并为社区成员的日常生活提供帮助。根据地点和路径匹配任务和人员也有助于节约资源和环境，因为执行任务所需的旅行里程减少了。该项目将为本科生和研究生提供多学科培训。它还将为研究团体提供人类移动模式和任务活动的匿名数据集，以及分析人类行为的工具。

This project will design and implement "Myrmex", a novel crowdsourcing system for physical-world tasks. For example, an elderly community member could use Myrmex for help getting mail from a remote post office, as the system would assign the task to a participant who routinely passes that way. Myrmex leverages the capacity of computers (monitoring, matching participants to tasks) to facilitate human activity (assigning and performing tasks). The project will: 1) develop new privacy-preserving methods for location and context tracking; 2) design and implement incentives for continuous use of a new social system; and 3) create and implement models of best times and places to notify and offer tasks for participants. Broader impacts: The Myrmex system will help strengthen bonds and connectivity within a community and provide assistance for community members for running their daily lives. Matching tasks and people based on locations and paths will also help conserve resources and benefit the environment due to the reduced travel miles needed to perform a task. The project will provide multidisciplinary training for undergraduate and graduate students. It will also provide the research community with an anonymized dataset of human mobility patterns and task activities, and tools to analyze human behavior.