PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD While sites such as Facebook let friends plan get-togethers and invite guests, the social media of the future could predict when people will meet each other and tell them when to host meet-ups.
Boeing researchers from its center at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign recently designed a system to track workers’ movements around a factory. The system, called Jyotish, tracks movements using WiFi and Bluetooth connections made by workers’ phones. Since these connections have short ranges—between 10 and 100 meters—scientists can use them to predict where workers will go, how long they will stay there and whom they will encounter.
The system uses several algorithms that take time and work shift into account to calculate location, duration and contact.
Jyotish’s creators, Long Vu and Klara Nahrstedt, think the program could do a lot more than just make factories more efficient. The team imagines a predictive social media tool that lets people know who they’ll encounter, where and when. It could also predict when like-minded individuals will be in a certain place. Why set up a coffee meeting with an old co-worker if you’ll both be at the same bar this weekend?
“This version of Facebook could even recommend that people create a hang-out event because they are likely to be in the same location in the future," Vu told New Scientist.
The system was tested on 79 participants, whose Android smartphones were equipped with WiFi and Bluetooth. In the trials, Jyotish could realistically predict movements.
While the tool might prove useful in factories and other crowded settings, its social uses have serious privacy implications—not to mention the possibility of wrecking fun happenstance meetings.
"How would you feel if your future happenstance meetings were all predicted in advance?” Peter Bentley, a computer scientist at University College London, told New Scientist. “What if anyone could predict exactly where you will be and who you will be with? It's a stalker's dream.”
The study’s results are published online at Science Direct.
Would you consider using a predictive social media tool to plan meet-ups? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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