Attendees at this week’s Google I/O event have unwittingly volunteered themselves as guinea pigs in an experiment being run by Google’s Cloud Platform Developer Relations team.

That’s right. Google is planning to quite literally keep track of everything and everyone who attends its annual Google I/O summit in San Francisco later this week, by installing an array of open-source sensors throughout the venue to monitor their behaviour.

For the world’s biggest internet company, it seems as if monitoring everything that we do online is no longer enough. To satisfy it’s unending thirst for information, it’s announced a joint project with experts from the O’Reilly Data Sensing Lab that involves planting hundreds of Arduino-based environment sensors in and around the Moscone Center.

Google says that it’ll be using analysis software based on its Google Cloud Platform to keep track of real-time environmental data at the venue, specifically air quality, temperature and humidity. In addition, Google will also monitor the level of noise generated in different parts of the conference, even going as far as tracking people’s individual footsteps to locate where they are.

Thankfully though, there doesn’t seem to be anything sinister going on (we hope). For one thing, Google is being very upfront and open about what it’s doing, explaining in a blog post that the results of the experiment will help it to better organize and coordinate future events. The idea is the data will allow it to highlight which areas generate the most interest and which parts see the least traffic. Meanwhile, to satisfy the more paranoid attendees or other conference planners perhaps, Google says that it will post all the data it accumulates online at the end of the event.

However, Google’s Michael Manoochehri seems to be trying just a little too hard to reassure us of his good intentions:

“Networked sensor technology is in the early stages of revolutionizing business logistics, city planning, and consumer products. We are looking forward to sharing the Data Sensing Lab with Google I/O attendees, because we want to show how using open hardware together with the Google Cloud Platform can make this technology accessible to anyone.”

Notice the emphasis at the end there about how everyone’s going to benefit? Hmm…

But he could have a point, at least if you happen to be in the business of coordinating large crowds. For one thing, these kinds of sensors could well benefit organizers of any kind of conference or event, allowing them to make the environment as comfortable as they possibly can while ensuring every thing’s laid out in a convenient fashion. It could help other businesses too – for example, retail stores that see lots of traffic could use it to keep track of their customers as they move around the premises, then adjust their displays accordingly for maximum effect. It’s certainly a lot less creepy than having mannequins with cameras and bugs that listen in on your conversations.

Of particular interest is how Google plans to tie all this data together:

“Our motes will be able to detect fluctuations in noise level, and some will be attached to footstep counters, to understand collective movement around the conference floor.”

So basically, they’ll be able to use all of your cumulative footsteps, mutterings, sneezes and wheezes and crunch this ‘noisy data’ into some kind of visualization that lets them see where people are gathering, where people are going… Creepy but intriguing nonetheless.

For those guinea pigs attending the event, you might want to reassure yourself by visiting the Data Sensing Lab workshop during your stay and taking a look at the data being gathered by the team in real-time. In addition, Google says there’ll be various monitors set up around the conference floor broadcasting real-time visualizations of whatever it is they’re doing.

Google I/O kicks off on May 15, but don’t go making any plans if you don’t already have a ticket in your possession – they all sold out within an hour of going on sale. Nevertheless, for those who can’t make it, we’ll be sure to keep you up to date with all the developments right here on SiliconANGLE, and we promise we won’t keep track of you whilst you’re reading up on them (though Google inevitably will).