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Researchers Track Cell Phones Indoors By Listening In
starzia writes "Researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan have developed a technique which aims to extend the reach of mobile phone location tracking. Their free iPhone app, Batphone, extracts a location 'fingerprint' from a short recording of ambient sound. This software-only approach allows the device to determine its location with high accuracy using its built-in microphone. Unlike prior indoor tracking techniques, Batphone does not rely on the presence of Wi-Fi access points to serve as landmarks, although these can be used to assist the system when available. They also posted a web game which allows you to test your own ability to recognize rooms by listening. Technical details are in a paper which was presented at the MobiSys conference on Thursday. This is from the same people who brought you laptop sonar."
Or maybe "gee, I'm a boss that wants to know where their employees are, lets use something like this" :)
On a more serious note, this will require training and labeling of the system, wifi/rfid based models just work everywhere (with varying degrees of success)
Is the name in reference to a bat's echolocation ability or is it a reference to the "Dark Knight" movie where such a software system was used by Batman to find the bad guys?
Only the Shadow knows.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
A recent court ruling in a case against the Genovese crime family revealed that the FBI has the ability from a remote location to activate a cell phone and turn its microphone into a listening device that transmits to an FBI listening post, a method known as a "roving bug." Experts say the only way to defeat it is to remove the cell phone battery.
So, no, there is no point to it from the perspective of a concerned parent. A concerned big brother, on the other hand...
Your brain is not a computer.
She's in the bedroom, her phone is in the kitchen. Unless the phone has a vibrate mode, in which case she and the phone are in the bedroom, and the boyfriend is in the kitchen...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Nokia has been working on this since at least 2009, just search for their Kamppi trial. I know that it's fashionable to knock Nokia on many things, but they do (or is it did?) work on some very fore-front things.
Somebody else created a similar application for his Nokia phones:
http://www.techalps.com/nokia/any-minnesota-readers-please-give-this-mall-of-america-app-a-try.html
Technically, the Dark Knight software was reference to a bat's echolocation ability, so... ;) Either way, it's pretty cool... until the government gets a warrentless wiretap and uses it to watch us in our homes. If that ever happens, I can guarantee that Morgan Freeman will be pissed... again...
I8-D