Comparison of User Presence Information from Mobile Phone and Sensor Data

Data collected from mobile phones or from motion detection sensors are regularly used as a proxy for user presence in networking studies. However, little attention was paid to the actual accuracy of these data sources, which present certain biases, in capturing actual human presence in a given geographical area. In this work, we conduct the first comparison between mobile phone data collected by an operator and human presence data collected by motion detection sensors in the same geographical area. Through a detailed spatio-temporal analysis, we show that a significant correlation exists between the two datasets, which can be seen as a cross validation of the two data sources. However, we also detect some significant differences at certain times and places, raising questions regarding the data used in certain studies in the literature. For example, we notice that the most important daily mobility peaks detected in mobile phone data are not actually detected by on ground sensors, or that the end of the work-day activities in the considered area is not synchronised between the two data sources. Our results allow to distinguish the metrics and the scenarios where user presence information is confirmed by both mobile phone and sensor data.