Bath University scientists in the UK have created a tool which uses unique ID of Bluetooth devices, like cellphones, to build new friendship networks in the hugely popular social network Facebook.
Users register with the Facebook tool, called Cityware, to track encounters in the real world via Bluetooth.
"Networks are everywhere - social and digital. The really nice thing about Bluetooth is that when you are walking down the street, although you are not talking to anyone, your Bluetooth device can be talking to other devices.The way Cityware works is, the tool lets users find out if any of the Bluetooth device users they bump into regularly are Cityware users, and have profiles on Facebook. If so, they can then choose to add that person to their friends' list.
"People with Bluetooth devices are actually creating an ad-hoc communications infrastructure where information can flow through the city over time." says Dr Vassilis Kostakos, research associate at the University of Bath.
The tool works in four parts: Facebook account, Cityware application, Bluetooth device and Cityware node.
Cityware users must have a Facebook account, install the Cityware application, and register the Bluetooth ID of their mobile phone or laptop with the software.
The researchers have set up a series of nodes around the United Kingdom and at locations in the United States. These nodes are computers which constantly scan for Bluetooth-enabled devices in a given area, and send that information back to servers which compare the IDs of the Bluetooth devices with any enabled Facebook profiles. Nodes have been set up in Bath, University College London, the University of California in San Diego, with more nodes to soon go online in Sweden, Hong Kong and Sydney.
"We are interested in understanding how cities work, how people move around. More recently we have been looking at how viruses spread in cities - biological and digital viruses."The ambition for the Facebook tool is to have mobile phones alert each other when in the proximity of another Facebook user who shares common interests or common friends.