Phone App Which Tells You Where to Find A New Love
http://dervishcom.blogspot.com/2011/11/phone-app-which-tells-you-where-to-find.html
Imagine you are heading off to a restaurant when your phone buzzes and suggests a different eaterie where you might meet someone that shares your passion for art and literature.
Sound like the stuff of science fiction? Well, apparently not. Scientists have devised software which will allow smart phones to do much more than keep you in contact with family and friends.
Very soon, they claim, phones will be helping users make new friends by suggesting places to go where people with similar interests are likely to congregate. The system – named Jyotish after the Sanskrit term for Hindu astrology – creates a map of people’s movements by tracking the wi-fi and Bluetooth connections on their phones to within around ten metres.
Eventually the technology would be able to go one step further, by matching their identities to social profiles and spotting situations where they may encounter a potential love match or work client.
The software was devised by Boeing scientists to predict the movement of its work crews in their huge aircraft factories. Researcher Long Vu gave 79 volunteers Android smartphones which were trackable.
They were used to create a log of users’ movements, enabling Vu to create a mobile version of Facebook, whereby people in the same area created a ‘hang-out event’ for others entering the vicinity to join.
But there are privacy and safety issues, said Peter Bentley, a computer scientist at University College London. He told New Scientist: ‘What if anyone could predict exactly where you will be and who you will be with? It is a stalker’s dream.’
Sound like the stuff of science fiction? Well, apparently not. Scientists have devised software which will allow smart phones to do much more than keep you in contact with family and friends.
Very soon, they claim, phones will be helping users make new friends by suggesting places to go where people with similar interests are likely to congregate. The system – named Jyotish after the Sanskrit term for Hindu astrology – creates a map of people’s movements by tracking the wi-fi and Bluetooth connections on their phones to within around ten metres.
Eventually the technology would be able to go one step further, by matching their identities to social profiles and spotting situations where they may encounter a potential love match or work client.
The software was devised by Boeing scientists to predict the movement of its work crews in their huge aircraft factories. Researcher Long Vu gave 79 volunteers Android smartphones which were trackable.
They were used to create a log of users’ movements, enabling Vu to create a mobile version of Facebook, whereby people in the same area created a ‘hang-out event’ for others entering the vicinity to join.
But there are privacy and safety issues, said Peter Bentley, a computer scientist at University College London. He told New Scientist: ‘What if anyone could predict exactly where you will be and who you will be with? It is a stalker’s dream.’
