“Mobile persuasion” is the study of how handheld devices — such as cell phones and personal data assistants — can be used to influence people’s choices, actions and desires. As cell phones become more and more like little computers, they enable users to receive information specific to their personal needs and desires.

With some students addicted to Web sites such as YouTube and Facebook, an industry has formed around how to tie technology and people together even more than now.

B.J. Fogg, director of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab (SPTL) organized a Mobile Persuasion Conference Friday to talk about the relationship between technology, information and people in the future.

“[If] I’m walking downtown, close to dinner time, my phone should be able to tell me there’s a bakery near,” he said, “or what groceries I need to buy.”

This weekend’s conference brought together leading experts in the field. The meeting, according to Fogg, “helped put Stanford in the center of the world when it comes to mobile persuasion.”

SPTL is a subset of the Center for the Study of Language Information (CSLI). Keith Devlin, executive director of the CSLI, highlighted SPTL’s contributions to the center.

“[It is] one of the jewels of the CSLI,” he said. “B.J. and his colleagues are pushing our understanding of mobile technologies and persuasion.”

Thomas Wasow, director of the CSLI, noted current problems in the field of mobile persuasion.

“Part of the problem,” he said, “[is that] there is a history of people making extravagant claims of their technology.”

Fogg is working to solidify the field in the future.

“From the academic perspective, we want to improve research methods for studying mobile persuasion,” he said. “We are making observations. That’s what science is all about.”