Sandy Pentland, director of MIT's Human Dynamics Research program, has focused his work on that unlikely task: using gadgets as simple as a cell phone to better understand the quirks and patterns of human behavior.

Pentland's experiments began with what he calls a "sociometer," a simple badge-like device that hangs from a subject's neck and records his or her movements, tone of voice, and location.

A cell phone can do almost exactly the same thing as a sociometer, the only difference being that it's not around your neck. It talks to cell towers and can tell your location, it has Bluetooth to scan for other devices, and some even have accelerometers to measure motion.