Social Serendipity: Mobilizing Social Software

TLDR

Bluetooth on mobile devices can identify nearby individuals. The authors developed an architecture that uses mobile phone Bluetooth to connect people in the same room. The architecture combines existing communication infrastructure with online introduction systems, using Bluetooth addresses and a user‑profile database to cue informal face‑to‑face interactions via a centralized server. Serendipity is an application of this architecture.

Abstract

Many mobile devices incorporate low-power wireless connectivity protocols, such as Bluetooth, that can be used to identify an individual to other people nearby. We have developed an architecture that leverages this functionality in mobile phones - originally designed for communication at a distance - to connect people across the room. Serendipity is an application of the architecture. It combines the existing communications infrastructure with online introduction systems' functionality to facilitate interactions between physically proximate people through a centralized server. A new mobile-phone-based system uses Bluetooth hardware addresses and a database of user profiles to cue informal, face-to-face interactions between nearby users who don't know each other, but probably should.