Bluetooth system helps users find the toilets

A SYSTEM that uses Bluetooth to pinpoint mobile phone users' location inside buildings was shown off yesterday as part of IBM's Extreme Blue Europe programme.

The scheme - which places bright students on 10 week projects - produced 35 potential patents and four submissions to the Open Source community this year.

IBM claims it has identified a new discipline - Services, Science, Management and Engineering (SSME) which is wants to push as a serious form of further education. Cynics would suggest IBM is just looking for good all-rounders.

The Bluetooth project - known as Locus - is a very simple concept. It utilises the Bluetooth capabilities of any compatible device to build a mesh network.

The trick lies with harnessing stationery devices - such as a Bluetooth enabled printer - as stationery beacons. The more mobile handsets that participate, the more accurately the system can locate your position.

The idea is to use the server/ handset client system in places like shopping malls. It can then easily guide participants to the nearest coffee shop, toilets, or ATM machines.

The INQ asked Dr Andy Stamford-Clark, a master inventor with IBM, how the company decided which bits of software to release into the Open Source community.

He claims that potential code is forwarded to a central US based board for consideration which ensures that the company "isn't giving away the crown jewels."

However, IBM frequently has a 'time-to-market' advantage and making the code Open Source simply means that extra facilities are added quickly.

Stamford-Clark also added that making code open provided a 'try-before-you-buy' element. "If they like the product, they can then come to us for a fully supported version," he pointed out. µ

L'INQ
Extreme Blue

See also
Sisi helps handset owners to 'speak' to deaf