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Cell Phones Tracking Nightlife Activity

Posted by timothy on from the ignores-all-cb-radio-based-night-life dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "A Columbia University computer science professor has co-founded a New York-based company named Sense Networks to sell tracking software to other companies. It is also distributing a free version of this software, named Citysense, which shows on your cell phone where the wild things are happening in your own town. Citysense 'uses advanced machine learning techniques to number crunch vast amounts of data emanating from thousands of cell-phones, GPS-equipped cabs and other data devices to paint live pictures of where people are gathering.' Citysense is available today in San Francisco, before being soon deployed in Chicago and five other U.S. cities."

20 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Those wild and crazy Japanese... by LM741N · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...have been selling devices for years that match up males and females. You program your device for male/single/gay or whatever and when a compatible person is nearby in notifies you. Don't know how they notify- maybe a smoke detector alarm.

  2. Don't crash their party by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nerds not invited ;)

    More seriously, it appears that this technology is GPS-only and not all folks have GPS-equipped phones. I don't understand GPS all that well and I'm wondering how this tracking software can locate them, do they have to consent to being tracked, etc. This also has some scary big-brother implications if it were to move past GPS and into standard triangulation of ALL cell phones -- with or without the user's consent(well, kinda -- what percent of average Joe users actually read their EULA/cell contract/etc.), to be used for marketing purposes(or worse).

    1. Re:Don't crash their party by icegreentea · · Score: 5, Informative

      TFA is a bit unclear, but it appears that in order to use this system, you also have to feed it your own information. Seems like a fair trade off (as long as its opt-in, can opt-out blah blah, standard privacy issues).

    2. Re:Don't crash their party by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Funny

      If a cellphone company ever tracks the cellphones of slashdotters they'll think we're dead.

      "Hey Jim, that guy has been sitting in the basement for the last 48 hours!"

      "Nah, he's still alive. Starcraft II came out three days ago."

    3. Re:Don't crash their party by vertinox · · Score: 5, Informative

      More seriously, it appears that this technology is GPS-only and not all folks have GPS-equipped phones. I don't understand GPS all that well and I'm wondering how this tracking software can locate them, do they have to consent to being tracked, etc.

      Actually, GPS isn't required to locate you with a cell phones. The technology exists to poll which cell phone towers your phone is polling and make a guesstimate of where you are based on that.

      With cell technology, you're not simply talking to one tower at a time because if you were traveling, then as soon as you were out of range of the tower, you would have the call drop. So the cell phones are actively polling the towers as you move to hand you off between the closest (or best signal in some case).

      This is how they locate you if you call 911.

      The downside is that if you are in a rural area, and have only 1 or even two towers (it takes three to triangulate), then they can't really tell where you are other than somewhere in a radius of the tower. So this technique only works within areas with high cell tower density.

      On a side note, you could always lend your cell phone to a girl when she goes to a Chip and Dale club and let the hilarity ensue when your friends show up there.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    4. Re:Don't crash their party by iluvcapra · · Score: 3, Funny

      What's funny is the moment I read this I immediately went to starcraft2.com to see if you were telling the truth.

      But alas, it was only a joke.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    5. Re:Don't crash their party by mrbluze · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This also has some scary big-brother implications ....

      Just on that point, think back to the 70's and early 80's before the public availability of condenser microphones and tiny FM (and AM) transmitters. Big Brother was as active as ever, spying as much as he could.

      Big Brother will be using whatever technology is available (read: whatever is imaginable) to track and follow. If you can imagine someone tracking someone with a device that is always on (or can be switched on remotely), then there are no 'implications' but 'realities' to deal with here.

      --
      Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
    6. Re:Don't crash their party by stormguard2099 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I assume you mean Chippendales not Chip and Dale.

      There's a difference?!?! Oh God! Must cancel my son's birthday party ASAP.

      --
      http://greenobyl.com/ please.... think of the children!!
  3. cool... by hugecabbage · · Score: 5, Funny

    now I'll know quickly which places to avoid.

    --
    oO0Oo
  4. what could possibly... by kaliann · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's a technology that doesn't sound like it could be misused by local or federal government. Freedom of assembly isn't really being infringed if Big bro just sends nice officers to "investigate suspicious activity", right? For everyone's safety, of course. Could be a fire hazard. Or underaged drinking.

    1. Re:what could possibly... by corbettw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or terrorists, for that matter.

      That said, I can't see the utility of something like this being all that high. Sure, it'll appeal to the posers who want to be seen in the right places; but the truly cool people don't need a device to tell them where the parties are, and the truly nerdy don't care.

      Come to think of it, the terrorists would be doing us a favor if they bombed the places frequented by those types. Let's turn it on and watch the species evolve ever higher!

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    2. Re:what could possibly... by spasm · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "it'll appeal to the posers who want to be seen in the right places"

      Except it won't even do that - by definition, anywhere where there's thousands of people isn't 'the right place'. Believe me, no hipster would be seen dead in pacbell park during a game or in some mega-nightclub. Posers want to boast about how they were in some tiny artspace with only 100 of the cogniceti(sp?) last night, now how they were in some giant venue that every moron from the burbs had managed to find.

  5. Two words... by seanellis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Flash crowd."

    Larry Niven, 1973. Sure, we don't have the instant travel, but this sounds like it would give much more immediate information than waiting for Jerryberry Jansen to randomly turn up at the incident with a portable TV camera.

    --
    Sean Ellis
    Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
  6. That's not how fun evenings work... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Outside of areas with small populations, who in the demographic looking for nightlife would look for large groups of people to help determine where to go for fun? That's perhaps even dumber than determining the best movie to see based solely on the box office receipts from the weekend before.

    1. Re:That's not how fun evenings work... by Skreech · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd probably use it to find where people aren't.

  7. Not helping at all by billcopc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can already picture sketchy bar owners buying up a ton of these things, to make their spot appear "hot" even though it's dead. After all, the idiotic vodka-redbull sipping bar-hoppers instinctively gravitate to the busiest shitholes, and this "technology" exists solely to capitalize even further on their collective ignorance.

    --
    -Billco, Fnarg.com
  8. Improves? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not everyone's idea of fun is hanging out at a club. Some people would nearly die of boredom at a nightclub. Just because someone else's idea of fun isn't your idea of fun, doesn't mean they aren't having a good time. I'm sure the folks who like hanging out at clubs would get bored at a frantic LAN FPS game (what without people to hit on/get hit on by, the pointless braindead social banter, and the lack of certain mind-altering substances), or would be scared shitless driving around a track at high speed (being so easily stimulated and all).

    To be honest I don't see how anyone could enjoy themselves clubbing. It's absolutely dull (especially if you hate pop culture) and the cost:fun ratio is abysmal IMO.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    1. Re:Improves? by arstchnca · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't know about your LAN parties, but I can't imagine them without certain mind-altering substances.

      Clubs are for people who don't want "substances," rather they want one substance - ethanol. And they want to do so in a dark loud room where frankly being drunk seems alright. With a lot of other "cool" people, too.

      --
      -- arstchnca
      --
  9. My thoughts exactly by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm always struggling to find unpopulated, desolate areas for many of my hobbies. Being able to find an area with no people around would be very useful. The problem is that you run into the conundrum of whether to go to the non-obvious or obvious empty areas. Which one would someone looking for an empty area go to, in order to avoid others seeking the same thing?

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  10. Good idea, but not very practical by imrtt · · Score: 3, Informative

    I operate a free GPS tracking service (http://www.instamapper.com), so I know a thing or two about this topic.

    This is an interesting idea, but it won't catch on for a few more years. The problem is that only a tiny fraction of cell phones (I would estimate less than 1%) are capable of GPS tracking now. Of those people who have a compatible phone, most won't bother to install the app and remember to start it whenever they go out. Typical battery life when GPS is turned on is about 8 hours. So this is not an app that can run in the background 24/7.

    In the end, you will have something like 10 people in San Francisco who send data to their system. It is enough data to make sense of what's happening in the city? Not hardly.

    Give it another 5-10 years, and perhaps most phones will have GPSs in them. Perhaps battery life will improve enough to make continuous GPS tracking possible. Until then, this service, and other similar services, will have little value.