Tracking Movement and Progress via Bluetooth
May 30, 2008 1 Comment
Bluetooth signals emanating from laptops and cell phones could provide an opportunity to monitor how long it takes vehicles and pedestrians to travel from one point to another. The information would be most useful in tracking the speed of a commute, or progress through airport security lines.
Once tracked, a real-time feedback could be established to respond to delays:
- TSA personnel could be reassigned to trouble spots to improve traveler progress through security.
- Additional entry gates could be opened to handle unexpected loads in an airport.
- Police or tow trucks could be dispatched to delayed regions on highways.
The monitoring would likely require a disclaimer in our litigious society ("The xyzzy org is monitoring your radio transmissions to improve service. At no time is your cell phone or wireless device data compromised."). A system need not glean any more than a unique ID of the transmission (versus actually accessing data) and track the location of that ID through a facility / traffic flow.
Of course, over-responsive wireless devices (those set in ‘discovery mode’) might alert their user, creating nothing less than a security panic for the (rightfully, in these digital daze) paranoid.
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