Phone Applications Foreground

Sensor parameters description for [PHONE_APPLICATIONS_FOREGROUND] (these parameters are used by the only provider available at the moment, RAPIDS):

Key	Description
[CONTAINER]	Data stream container (database table, CSV file, etc.) where the applications foreground data is stored. This can be a single container or an array of containers
[APPLICATION_CATEGORIES][CATALOGUE_SOURCE]	FILE or GOOGLE. If FILE, app categories (genres) are read from [CATALOGUE_FILE]. If [GOOGLE], app categories (genres) are scrapped from the Play Store
[APPLICATION_CATEGORIES][CATALOGUE_FILE]	CSV file with a package_name and genre column. By default we provide the catalogue created by Stachl et al in data/external/stachl_application_genre_catalogue.csv
[APPLICATION_CATEGORIES][UPDATE_CATALOGUE_FILE]	if [CATALOGUE_SOURCE] is equal to FILE, this flag signals whether or not to update [CATALOGUE_FILE], if [CATALOGUE_SOURCE] is equal to GOOGLE all scraped genres will be saved to [CATALOGUE_FILE]
[APPLICATION_CATEGORIES][SCRAPE_MISSING_CATEGORIES]	This flag signals whether or not to scrape categories (genres) missing from the [CATALOGUE_FILE]. If [CATALOGUE_SOURCE] is equal to GOOGLE, all genres are scraped anyway (this flag is ignored)

RAPIDS provider

The app category (genre) catalogue used in these features was originally created by Stachl et al.

Available time segments and platforms

• Available for all time segments
• Available for Android only

File Sequence

- data/raw/{pid}/phone_applications_foreground_raw.csv
- data/raw/{pid}/phone_applications_foreground_with_datetime.csv
- data/raw/{pid}/phone_applications_foreground_with_datetime_with_categories.csv
- data/interim/{pid}/phone_applications_foreground_features/phone_applications_foreground_{language}_{provider_key}.csv
- data/processed/features/{pid}/phone_applications_foreground.csv

Parameters description for [PHONE_APPLICATIONS_FOREGROUND][PROVIDERS][RAPIDS]:

Key	Description
[COMPUTE]	Set to True to extract PHONE_APPLICATIONS_FOREGROUND features from the RAPIDS provider
[INCLUDE_EPISODE_FEATURES]	Set to True to extract features from application usage episodes using Screen data. If set to True, all episodes and events features are computed from episode data; otherwise, events features are computed from event data
[FEATURES]	Features to be computed, see table below
[SINGLE_CATEGORIES]	An array of app categories to be included in the feature extraction computation. The special keyword all represents a category with all the apps from each participant. By default, we use the category catalog pointed by [APPLICATION_CATEGORIES][CATALOGUE_FILE] (see the Sensor parameters description table above)
[CUSTOM_CATEGORIES]	An array of collections representing your own app categories. The key of each element is the name of the custom category, and the value is an array of the package names (apps) included in that category.
[MULTIPLE_CATEGORIES]	An array of collections representing meta-categories (a group of categories). The key of each element is the name of the meta-category and the value is an array of member app categories. By default, we use the category catalog pointed by [APPLICATION_CATEGORIES][CATALOGUE_FILE] (see the Sensor parameters description table above)
[SINGLE_APPS]	An array of apps to be included in the feature extraction computation. Use their package name (e.g. com.google.android.youtube) or the reserved keyword top1global (the most used app by a participant over the whole monitoring study)
[EXCLUDED_CATEGORIES]	An array of app categories to be excluded from the feature extraction computation. By default, we use the category catalog pointed by [APPLICATION_CATEGORIES][CATALOGUE_FILE] (see the Sensor parameters description table above)
[EXCLUDED_APPS]	An array of apps to be excluded from the feature extraction computation. Use their package name, for example: com.google.android.youtube

Features description for [PHONE_APPLICATIONS_FOREGROUND][PROVIDERS][RAPIDS]:

Feature	Units	Description
countevent	apps	Number of times a single app or apps within a category were used (i.e. they were brought to the foreground either by tapping their icon or switching to it from another app)
timeoffirstuse	minutes	The time in minutes between 12:00am (midnight) and the first use of a single app or apps within a category during a time_segment
timeoflastuse	minutes	The time in minutes between 12:00am (midnight) and the last use of a single app or apps within a category during a time_segment
frequencyentropy	nats	The entropy of the used apps within a category during a time_segment (each app is seen as a unique event, the more apps were used, the higher the entropy). This is especially relevant when computed over all apps. Entropy cannot be obtained for a single app
countepisode	apps	Number of times a usage episode of a single app or apps within a category were logged. In contrast to countevent, if an app was used across more than one time segment (for example, across more than one 30-minute segment), the countepisode will be one on each time segment instance.
minduration	minutes	For a time_segment, the minimum duration an application was used in minutes
maxduration	minutes	For a time_segment, the maximum duration an application was used in minutes
meanduration	minutes	For a time_segment, the mean duration of all the applications used in minutes
sumduration	minutes	For a time_segment, the sum duration of all the applications used in minutes

Assumptions/Observations

1. Features can be computed by app, by apps grouped under a single category (genre), by your own categories, or by multiple categories grouped together (meta-categories). For example, we can get features for Facebook (single app), for Social Network apps (a category including Facebook and other social media apps), for Traditional Social Media (a custom category that includes Twitter and Facebook), or for Social (a meta-category formed by Social Network and Social Media Tools categories).

2. Apps installed by default like YouTube are considered systems apps on some phones. We do an exact match to exclude apps where “genre” == EXCLUDED_CATEGORIES or “package_name” == EXCLUDED_APPS.

3. We provide four ways of classifying an app within a category (genre): a) by automatically scraping its official category from the Google Play Store, b) by using the catalog created by Stachl et al., which we provide in RAPIDS (data/external/stachl_application_genre_catalogue.csv), c) by manually creating a personalized catalog, or d) by defining a custom category in config.yaml. You can choose a, b, or c by modifying [APPLICATION_GENRES] keys and values (see the first table of this page).

4. We count episodes and events separately. Events are single app logs (when an app was opened), but episodes span from the time an app was opened until a new app is in the foreground or the screen is locked. Episodes will be chunked across any overlapping time segments. The top1global of episodes might not be the same as the top1global of events.

5. The application episodes are calculated using the application foreground and screen unlock episode data. An application episode starts when the application is launched and ends when new application is launched, or the screen is locked.

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