Surveys conducted over the mobile phone show strong potential for increasing our knowledge about the conditions in rural and urban environments. The widespread nature of mobile phones means that researchers can learn more about impoverished conditions, simply by asking. Individuals can even be asked to join studies, whereby their social/economic state can be monitored through self-report.

Currently, mobile surveys are used by clinical researchers following participants in drug testing trials, but I am not aware of any use for anthropological purposes.

Surveys can be answered through speech or by entering numbers on the keypad. This allows people to answer yes/no questions, multiple choice questions, and provide ratings (on a scale of 1-5). Speech can either be processed through speech recognition, or simply collected and placed into a database.