A new app could increase student engagement through innovative use of wearable tech.

An Imperial academic has found a new way to use undergraduate students’ physiological signals to better understand complex, maths-heavy subjects.

Prof Danilo Mandic, from Imperial’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, asked his students to record their own heart and breathing rates, and use that data to fill out usual mathematics coursework
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An app gives onscreen instructions on how and when to gather data, before displaying the measurements and using them in their equations
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Prof Danilo Mandic, from Imperial’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, asked his students to record their own heart and breathing rates, and use that data to fill out usual mathematics coursework. iAMP is a device that measures students’ heart and breathing rates via wrist electrodes. An accompanying computer app gives onscreen instructions on how and when to gather data, before displaying the measurements and using them in their equations.

“We hope to develop and apply the tech to other analytically and data -heavy subjects like computer science and medicine, or even business,” Professor Mandic says. “Exploring the multidisciplinary, ethical and societal aspects of our work will help students to challenge themselves, engage their curiosity, and have the confidence to be intellectually adventurous.”

Professor Mandic studied whether using this system would enrich student intellectual curiosity and engagement, and perhaps even performance, especially in maths-heavy modules
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At least 85 per cent of the students involved described increased intellectual satisfaction and engagement as a result of the idea. Professor Mandic hopes to apply the technology to other analytically and data -heavy subjects like computer science and medicine, or even business. He also hopes to inspire other educators to get creative with their teaching methods.

“Having a coursework which included real world signals like the ECG, voice and sound files made the course so much more tangible and enjoyable,” one student said.

Professor Mandic studied whether using this system would enrich student intellectual curiosity and engagement, and perhaps even performance, especially in maths-heavy modules. The approach could also help keep the curriculum current by synching it to technological and educational developments.

At least 85 per cent of the students involved described increased intellectual satisfaction and engagement as a result of the idea
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The body as a unique dataset

Professor Anthony Constantinides, who pioneered the Signal Processing discipline at Imperial’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, stated that the technique of engaging students in curiosity-driven learning helped to broaden students’ perspective on research and employment opportunities in next-generation health care.

Professor Mandic’s team will continue to enhance the technique with more data, for example on movement and neural signals. They also noted the need for ethical and privacy considerations in future studies, as well as developing a protocol when data indicates potential health issues in students.

Overall, the study could help to bring biopresence technology into the classroom more widely at both University and late secondary school level.  The approach is now being adopted in UC Berkeley, USA, and University of Lyon, France.

The study could help to bring biopresence technology into the classroom
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To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Using Vital Signs to Solve Complex Equations appeared first on Tech Trends.

If you’re unnerved by the amount of information Google has on you, there are several steps you can take to get around the company’s relentless tracking.

Use a VPN

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a secure option to keep Google from tracking you while you’re online. Although virtual private networks can’t completely keep the company from accessing your data, they do hide your IP address, encrypt your Internet traffic and make your browsing history private, keeping your online actions much more secure.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a secure option to keep Google from tracking you while you’re online
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Private browsing

Use Google’s Incognito Mode to ensure that the pages you access won’t show up in your browsing history or search history. Be aware, however, that other websites can still collect and share information about you, even when you’re using private browsing.

Use Google’s Incognito Mode to ensure that the pages you access won’t show up in your browsing history
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Adjust your privacy settings

Check out Google’s Activity Controls to change what data is stored about you and visit your Activity Page to delete stored history and activity.

Check Google’s Activity Controls to change what data is stored about you
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Turn off location reporting

In Google Maps — as well as in your Android and Pixel device settings, if you use those products — disable location reporting to keep Google from tracking where you are and where you go. If you use Google Maps or Waze for directions, though, the company can still collect location data on you when you’re using those apps.

Disable location reporting to keep Google from tracking where you are
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Use a different browser and search engine

To stop Google from tracking your searches and website visits, you can use another browser and search engine, like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Bing. However, this will only stop Google from tracking you — Microsoft (or whatever company owns the browser you switch to) will get your data instead.

To stop Google from tracking your searches and website visits, use another browser and search engine, like Internet Explorer and Bing
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Delete your Google accounts

To truly stop the tech giant from tracking you, you’ll need to take some drastic measures — namely, disavowing the use of any of the company’s products. That means deleting any apps linked to the company, including Gmail, Google Drive and any Android devices, and moving to a different browser and search engine.

Stopping the tech giant from tracking you requires drastic measures
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Google has made life a lot simpler in many ways. Google Search has made answers just a click away. Google Maps has made directions easy to find and understand. Google Drive has made working across multiple platforms seamless.

This convenience comes with a price: privacy. If you’re concerned about how Google is tracking you — and what they’re doing with the data — follow the steps above to keep yourself safe, and visit Google’s Privacy Site for a more comprehensive overview of what data Google is tracking and how they use it.

Google has made life a lot simpler in many ways, but all this convenience comes with a price: privacy
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Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Infographic: How Much Does Google Know About You? appeared first on Tech Trends.