CrowdFound: A Mobile Crowdsourcing System to Find Lost Items On-the-Go

Abstract

We present CrowdFound, a mobile crowdsourcing system to find lost items. CrowdFound allows users to input lost item descriptions on a map and then sends notifications to users passing near tagged areas. To assess the system's efficacy, we conducted interviews and user testing on CrowdFound. Our results show that users were able to find lost items when using a combination of the notification, map, and item description features. In addition, users were willing to deviate off path to look for lost items, particularly when exercising. Our findings also suggest socio-technical features to promote more effective on-the-go crowdsourced help on microtasks. This research builds our understanding of physical crowdsourcing as a tool for solving societal problems and suggests broader implications for utilizing mobile crowds.