[hmcq6]

I don't love the way they came up with these numbers. Although it's possible I'm being overly skeptical.

The recording device turns on randomly and captures bursts and then a computer counts how many words were spoken and they estimate the total days count based on that. It amounts to about an hour of recording per day spread out over 17 hours.

I cant see the full paper but from what I can see they don't describe identifying who the speaker is in each recording, so does that mean any word the microphone picks up is attributed to the wearer?

With 5,258 hours or 657 workdays worth of recordings I wouldn't be surprised if they cut this corner given that even at $15/hour they would be spending more than $80k on just the transcription.

So, is it possible falling asleep with the tv on skews the results?

What about being a generally quiet person and living with a yapper?

And more abstractly, is asking "Do you want fries with that" making conversation or are they just doing their job? Should that really count? (no shade, I just don't think our customer service voice is a reflection of our true self)