The Wireless Rope program runs on Java enabled mobile phones with Bluetooth, e.g. Nokia 6680, 3210i, Siemens SK-65, SonyEricsson K750i and others. Required Java APIs: MIDP 2.0 and JSR-82. There are two ways to install the program on a phone:
Before launching, Bluetooth has to enabled. Anyhow, it is not required that the device is set to discoverable mode.
When lauching the program, it displays a black sphere at the bottom representing the device itself. The blue emitting circles indicate Bluetooth device inquiry activity to detect other devices. Wireless Rope performs periodic inquiries with phases of inactivity to continuously detect other devices and to be potentially discoverable by others.
A short time after an inquiry phase, other spheres representing Bluetooth devices might appear on the top of the display. These devices are approximately located in a 10 meter radius. The placement on the display does not correspond to their real position. Instead, they move slowly from the top to the bottom to indicate how long they have been in proximity. The labels of the spheres are the names given to the devices by their owners. A couple of minutes after a device left proximity, it dissappears from the display.
Devices are classified, indicated by their color:
A red cross over the black sphere indicates a failure while performing device inquiry. See limitations.
The Wireless Rope collects information about each seen device, including the Bluetooth device class as well as number of sighings and meetings (a meeting is a continuous sequence of sightings).
Devices can be selected on the main screen to view device details. Press the "right" arrow button to switch to selection mode (the background turns blue). Select a device with the "up" and "down" arrow buttons. Press "fire" to open the details dialog. When finished, press "left" arrow button to return to the view mode.
On the Device Details dialog, a device can be assigned an alias to easily recognize it. It can also be Roped Up to get tactile feedback, if it leaves or approaches proximity.
While the Wireless Rope J2ME program only shows the data it collects itself, the connection map can be used to explore the combined data of all mobile devices. The map is available at http://wrp.auriga.wearlab.de and will be updated regularly throughout the Ubicomp conference.
The nodes in the radial view and force view represent Bluetooth devices. Edges indicate that the proximity of both devices was detected by the Wireless Rope. Nodes can be selected and moved with the left mouse button. Holding the right button pressed while moving the mouse up and down changes the zoom level.
The Wireless Rope program does not collect any private information from other devices. It queries for the unique Bluetooth device address and the device class. Additionally, it asks for the device name, which can be changed by the user. A Bluetooth device will disclose this information only, when it is in discoverable mode.
The connection map on the web will not disclose the Bluetooth device addresses of devices. Only the names that the users give their device are shown.
There are basically two things that limit the Wireless Rope:
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