MIT researchers’ app lets people to live stranger's life

A group of MIT researchers has come up with an application called 20 Day Stranger, that allows people to experience the life of a stranger.

As the name suggests, 20 days was all that one got during which, one could share one's daily activities and experiences with another person and it also gave the  opportunity to take a look into the stranger's life.

But there was one slight catch in that people would not have the slightest clue as to who they were sharing their personal life. The team behind the new innovation is the Playful systems group.

The app allows both sides to keep themselves anonymous and continuous updates are provided letting both know what the person at the other end was up to.

The anonymous stranger could be from anywhere around the globe and while it did not provide one with a complete look at how a stranger lived, it did encourage one to use one's imagination. The application tracked one's activities and movements, but it did not store any data and the developer has assured users that information such as one's name and other personal content which could be used for identification would not be exchanged and was not even accessible to them.

The 20 Day Stranger application was not available on the App Store as yet and one would need to register with the creator in order to participate.

The app uses services including Google Maps to let people know how it felt walking in the virtual steps of a person.

IANS quoted Kevin Slavin, director of MIT Media Lab's Playful Systems research group  as saying,  the company started by thinking, whether they could make some piece of software that allowed people to be connected to strangers in a way that produced empathy instead of suspicion, contempt or disdain.
 
At the end of the experiment, each person would get a chance to send a message to the other - either to say goodbye, or to exchange contact information if they liked, according to reports.