  One of the core challenges in open-plan workspaces is to ensure a good level
of concentration for the workers while performing their tasks. Hence, being
able to infer concentration levels of workers will allow building designers,
managers, and workers to estimate what effect different open-plan layouts will
have and to find an optimal one. In this research, we present an
ambient-physical system to investigate the concentration inference problem.
Specifically, we deploy a series of pervasive sensors to capture various
ambient and physical signals related to perceived concentration at work. The
practicality of our system has been tested on two large open-plan workplaces
with different designs and layouts. The empirical results highlight promising
applications of pervasive sensing in occupational concentration inference,
which can be adopted to enhance the capabilities of modern workplaces.
