A new Facebook application developed by Researchers at the Technion’s Faculty of Computer Science, enables using a laptop computer, without being connected to the Internet, to detect Facebook friends who have also installed it. Imagine being stuck in an airport and still being able to network, chat, share files and directories, play collaborative games, or actually meet face-to-face with those previously "virtual friends". The Software enables one friend on Facebook to find another friend, or a friend of a friend, who happens to be in his or her vicinity. The Technion has applied for a patent for this innovative development.
A year ago, researchers from the Technion’s Faculty of Computer Science developed software that enables direct communication between computers and notebook computers using WiFi without an intermediary agent such as Internet service provider. The Technion researchers made the software available at no charge to computer users worldwide.
Back then, direct communication between computers was not widespread because it was very complicated, entailed a long process of data entering and clicking on many keys - so much that even professionals shied away from it. The Technion researchers’ new software also offers applications that did not exist previously.
The software was developed in the framework of the doctoral dissertation of Vadim Drabkin, Gabi Kliot and Alon Kama, under the direction of Prof. Roy Friedman of the Faculty of Computer Science. They built a user-friendly application platform that enables simple communication between computers in close proximity (a range of tens of meters or up to 900 ft). It can be used to transfer dozens of digital pictures from one computer to another in less than a minute, to carry on chats or to play multiplayer games, such as chess.
“For example, employees who go abroad on company business may be seated separately from one another in the airplane. With this software, they can work together on their presentation during their flight,” says Prof. Friedman.
The software is called WiPeer, and since it was published, 50,000 downloads have been registered.
Now, doctoral students Vadim Drabkin and Gabi Kliot, together with students Lior Biran and Tomer Einav, also under the direction of Prof. Roy Friedman, have added a new development, called “Peersonalizer” (personalizing a network friend). Peersonalizer uses a technology that can be applied to social networking sites other than Facebook, like MySpace, Friendster and LinkedIn
“Students can thus expand their network of acquaintances on campus,” the researchers explain. “A businessperson waiting in an airport can meet a friend of a friend who is also waiting in the terminal for his plane and thus expand his circle of business acquaintances. Of course, it is possible to implement this functionality for additional social networks.”
In the future, it will be possible to use this method on WiFi-enabled mobile phones, such as the iPhone, without the need for an intermediary such as a cellular phone company. Additional planned features include the ability to search for nearby Facebook users based on profile matching. The technology can also be used for dating applications that utilize both proximity and social profiles.
The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is Israel’s leading science and technology university. Home to Israel’s winners of the Nobel Prize in science, it commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in nanotechnology, computer science, biotechnology, water-resource management, materials engineering, aerospace and medicine. The majority of the founders and managers of Israel’s high-tech companies are alumni. Based in New York City, the American Technion Society (ATS) is the leading American organization supporting higher education in Israel, with 22 offices around the country.
you can download the WiPeer from here.
