Tuesday, December 19, 2006

WiFi at MIT

This link was recommended by Maria Harrington:

When we first spotted MIT's location-tracking WiFi network last year, the stalking capabilities were interesting, but not fully realized. Now with this new iFIND app of theirs, WiFi positioning takes on a whole new level of geeky functionality at the Boston campus. At its core, iFIND is a peer-to-peer application that allows users to control the flow of their own location information, eliminating the privacy concerns of a centralized tracking system. Built on top of that functionality are all sorts of interesting buddy list capabilities to track and chat with friends, and choose who can track you. You can also set up meeting places with friends, even using the system to pick a spot at the "center of gravity" of a group of friends for the ultimate in geek cred. Anyone with an MIT email address can use the system, and future functionality includes the ability to share data anonymously with users found with the system, or to alert the police to your position in an emergency without divulging your identity -- all for the truly paranoid, but fun stuff all the same.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You know that the kids (BSIS) here would love this... they also want a Starbucks on the first floor and a big screen HDTV… a really cool lounge... maybe some ambient art projected on to the walls.. (actually monitoring and visualizing the mood status of the faculty) -