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MIT Mapping Students WiFi Access in 3D
GuitarNeophyte writes "Ever wished that you had a way to just look at a map and find your friends across campus? Or wanted to find an open study lounge without having to foot it on over? Well, with MIT's new WiFi Mapping project, you can. They've set up large plexiglass maps, projecting dots over a campus map, allowing you to know the concentration of WiFi users in various parts of the grounds. With over 2800 access points, locations of individual students (if they have opted to reveal their information) can be found with accuracy as close as the individual classroom (even in multi-story buildings). It's also had the affect of providing some interesting research on study patterns, '[R]esearchers also found that study labs that once bustled with students are now nearly empty as people, no longer tethered to a phone line or network cable, move to cafes and nearby lounges, where food and comfy chairs are more inviting.'"
Do they call it "The Marauders Map"?
I reject your reality, and subsitute my own
Hmmm...I wonder if he got a grant to go to school?
At the end of the day, when university is empty, you can check on the map if someone forgot his computer. I guess you could get 5-10 pc a year.
Labs are empty and Cafes are full at MIT. Yeah right, those kids don't want to socialize, that is why they got into MIT. They love the lab, in fact they never leave their labs, which is obvious once you smell them. A geek without a lab is like a race car driver without a car.
Of course this makes headlines when MIT does it, but everyone ignores that UC San Diego began something similar years ago. They gave out PDAs (crappy ones, mind you... HP Jornada) to a few thousand students so that they could see each other as long as they were within range of the access points. I have to admit, I never used it because the PDA they gave me lasted about 30 minutes on a full battery charge, but it looked pretty interesting when I was a freshman there. I'm sure they're not the only other campus to have tried this, either. http://activecampus.ucsd.edu/
Forecast for tomorrow: A few sprinklings of genius with a chance of DOOM!
Sounds like a very nice system for stalking girls... Oh wait, MIT
\u262D = \u5350
Here is the iSpots (MIT's WiFi mapping and tracking) home page @ MIT with great pictures and more information
http://ispots.mit.edu/
Enjoy!
Sig
Researchers find that college students enjoy eating and sitting down.
Tests are currently being conducted on the effect of both of these situations in tandem.
The researchers suspect that children and adults will behave similarly, but have not yet conducted conclusive testing on the matter.
Glog!