Finding Social Location Using Bluetooth

Abstract: From the last few years many location based system have been introduced e.g. facebook, orkut, youtube and my-space etc. These networks are specially developed for personal computers. Some location based systems are also introduced for mobile device e.g. Plazes, MamJam, Slam and Jambo. All these type of networks are using the concept of social location, which provides the platform where people can join or make communities according to their interests. Numbers of users on these networks are increasing day by day due to their popularity. This popularity gives the opportunity for researchers to explore the characteristics of these social networks at large scale. This knowledge will be then used to improve the existing networks or to develop new networks. Already developed systems for mobile devices are using different techniques (e.g. Radio Frequency Identification, GPS, GSM, WAP etc.) to determine the location of any person. In this thesis, I am going to develop a prototype of system that will find the social location of an individual using passive Bluetooth scanning of mobile devices. The main idea behind this prototype is that the data obtained should be flexible to target different social needs and as well as different social location applications. The research will explore some more areas of Bluetooth by extending its dimension in social location system. The expected output from this research will help human being to overcome some of their social problems. Social location obtained from the prototype can be used to fulfill different social needs of human being. Keywords: Social location, Bluetooth, Physical location, GPRS, Mobile applications.