Last fridays session was devoted to discussing the potential uses of bluetooth device scanning for the understanding of individual and group behaviour. The catalyst for discussion was this blog post by Fabien Girardin. We felt that this post was very useful for understanding both the state of the art in the scanning technology itself and also getting a picture of what has already been done in terms of using the information gathered from such scans for useful purposes. It appears that the technology has already been successfully applied to tracking footfall and traffic in a city centre, and for implementing the dynamic display of personally relevant information on public displays.
Discussion moved towards the ethical implications of using such scanning technology – and parallels were made to early research on peoples awareness and perception of CCTV cameras.
Follow Us