Researchers in Indianapolis have used random travelers’ Bluetooth phone signals to monitor the amount of time that it is taking to travel from the entrance of airport security through the exit. This allows them to know that the peak times are 6:00 am (20 minute wait) and just about any other time is normal (about six minutes per passenger). Monitoring was done from May 8 to June 1 to observe the impact of increased airport passenger travel associated with the Indianapolis 500. Similar technology is also being used to monitor motor vehicle travel time by the Indiana Department of Transportation which uses it to monitor for construction delays.

Traffic monitoring is presently available commercially via either off-oline or real-time BluFax units manufactured by Traffax.

The real-time device is intended for long-term installations that may be associated with ongoing traffic operations and other activities requiring the continuous reporting of traffic flows in real-time. Real-time devices might be installed on the roadways surrounding a sports arena, on freeways where displays of travel times on variable message signs are to be posted, for monitoring traffic impacts of incidents, and on arterials for real-time updates of traffic signal timing. Real-time devices will be solar powered and rely on wireless communication for transmission of real-time data to a location for processing and display. Solar power is readily implemented due to the extremely low power requirements of the BluFax equipment. The real-time units will be available during the first quarter of 2009.

This technology is all dependent upon observing the unique serial number or MAC ID of a Bluetooth device. Since each has its own unique number these monitoring devices can accurately identify and measure how quickly the device is moving from point a to point b.

Although the company has policies that dictate the MAC ID information is not retained – it might not be too long before there’s a database associated with these particular IDs. Can the first subpoena for a MAC ID log be far behind?

Physorg

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