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Bluetooth Tracking without Discoverability

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Location and Context Awareness (LoCA 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 5561))

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Abstract

Outdoor location-based services are now prevalent due to advances in mobile technology and GPS. Indoors, however, even coarse location remains unavailable. Bluetooth has been identified as a potential location technology that mobile consumer devices already support, easing deployment and maintenance. However, Bluetooth tracking systems to date have relied on the Bluetooth inquiry mode to constantly scan for devices. This process is very slow and can be a security and privacy risk. In this paper we investigate an alternative: connection-based tracking. This permits tracking of a previously identified handset within a field of fixed base stations. Proximity is determined by creating and monitoring low-level Bluetooth connections that do not require authorisation. We investigate the properties of the low-level connections both theoretically and in practice, and show how to construct a building-wide tracking system based on this technique. We conclude that the technique is a viable alternative to inquiry-based Bluetooth tracking.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, UK

    Simon Hay & Robert Harle

Authors
  1. Simon Hay
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  2. Robert Harle
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, NH 03755, Dartmouth, Hanover, USA

    Tanzeem Choudhury

  2. Complex & Adaptive Systems Laboratory, School of Computer Science & Informatics, University College Dublin, Belfield Office Park, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Aaron Quigley

  3. Institute of Communications and Navigation, German Aerospace Center, 82234 Wessling/Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, and Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), University of Innsbruck, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Thomas Strang

  4. Semiconductor Group R&D Division, Sony Corporation, 1-11-1 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, 141-0032, Tokyo, Japan

    Koji Suginuma

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hay, S., Harle, R. (2009). Bluetooth Tracking without Discoverability. In: Choudhury, T., Quigley, A., Strang, T., Suginuma, K. (eds) Location and Context Awareness. LoCA 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5561. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01721-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01721-6_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-01720-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-01721-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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