iMotions Launches Online Data Collection Module, Expanding Human Behavioral Research Capabilities to Anyone, Anywhere at Any Time
Quick, cost-effective, and flexible, ODC helps organizations navigate immediate COVID-19 challenges while creating long-term potential outside the lab
COPENHAGEN – iMotions, the world’s leading software platform for studying human behavior, today announced the launch of its Online Data Collection module, powering quick, cost-effective research in natural environments across the globe. The module is already helping organizations navigate study challenges presented by COVD-19 while creating long-term ideas for expanding and enhancing current, lab-based research approaches.
Built on iMotions’ Desktop Solution, the Online Data Collection module uses a browser interface and a participant’s own webcam to collect data from facial expression analysis and eye tracking, which can be combined easily with self-report surveys. Data then can be processed and analyzed through the Desktop Solution, maintaining integrity without compromising full, flexible functionality.“The future of human behavior research isn’t in the lab alone, but in complementing that by measuring and analyzing behavior in natural environments,” said Peter Hartzbech, iMotions Founder and CEO.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a short-term need to get into the real world, but it’s only reinforced the overall need of researchers seeking to gain as much understanding as possible.”
Organizations testing Online Data Collection have already seen immediate impact. The University of South Florida, for example, completed a biometrics-focused study of Anti-Tobacco message testing for the Florida Department of Health – despite COVID-19 protocols preventing in-lab testing.
“Our collaboration with iMotions made it possible for us to transition to online data collection while keeping our research study timeline as planned during COVID-19 lockdowns,” said Rob Hammond, Director of the Center for Marketing and Sales Innovation at USF. “Built upon the iMotions’ Lab solution, the Online Data Collection module gives us the flexibility to go as narrow or wide as the study warrants within geography, ethnicity, or gender. We have found it very useful as a supplement to our premises’ lab assets with quick turnaround time as data is collected in parallel remotely via webcam.”
Available immediately, Online Data Collection’s features and benefits include:
- Powerful insights: Capture and integrate biometric, behavioral, and self-report data from a range of media, including images, videos, and websites.
- Flexible Study Design: Design, distribution, and data collection all are managed remotely – from home or lab. And turnaround time can decrease by as much as 80 percent.
- Panel Flexibility: Scale biometric studies to hundreds or thousands of respondents – wherever, whenever, and with broad or very narrow demographics.
- Data Quality: Realize the advantages of studies in a natural environment, while having the flexibility to segment out data from low-quality respondents.
- Analysis Flexibility: By importing data into the Desktop Solution, it can be processed when needed, analyzed in-depth with a full suite of tools, and integrated or compared with other work.
Forward Group, a Missouri-based market research company, has used Online Data Collection to help a global life sciences company identify and fix visuals that would have proven problematic in its advertising.
“Identifying nonverbal cues from audiences is extremely important when developing and refining creative, and our biosensor-based research revealed several that were not picked up by traditional verbal measures,” said Greg Deters, Managing Partner at Forward Group. “Online Data Collection allowed us to gather this insight remotely – a critical feature for anyone who needs to gather data outside of a major population center, including rural locations, or from across the country in a cost-effective way.”
About iMotions
Founded in 2005, iMotions has developed the world’s leading human behavior software platform. More than 1,000 organizations around the world – from leading academic institutions to global brands to highly-respected healthcare organizations – use iMotions to access real-time and nonconscious emotional, cognitive, and behavioral data. By integrating and synchronizing all types of sensors into a single platform, iMotions provides researchers with access to deeper and richer insights, and the most complete picture of human behavior.