Bluetooth Mobile Phone Presence Detector

ozmo

Does anyone know if this kind of tracking is still possible with modern phones - ie. does enabling bluetooth constantly leak an id like an open wifi hotspot.

In the below setup they had bt receivers that indicated in lights how many people were crossing the the bridge.

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2007/03/switched_on_london_bridge_bluetooth.html

I tried to detect this signal from my own iphone using an arduino bluetooth module but wasnt very successful.

an interactive lighting installation on Tower Bridge, controlled by Bluetooth sensors on London Bridge. the movement of individuals carrying active Bluetooth devices are captured on London Bridge. this information ... control's a dynamic band of ambient light displays.

thanks.

Chet T16

Thats one of Mike whathisfaces (mikeselectricstuff on youtube)

Was the phone discoverable? Androids default to being hidden, i'd assume apples are the same.

HC-06 module?

ozmo

Chet T16 wrote: »

Was the phone discoverable? Androids default to being hidden, i'd assume apples are the same.

HC-06 module?

Thanks - I tried a similar HC-05 module as thats what I have - but I see ids from the iphones only for a short while after phone bluetooth is switched on- or for a couple minutes during pairing on an android, then nothing.

All tutorials I've seen are 4 or more years old but suggest you can get an id from phones always - that demo installation I posted above required users to do nothing to their phones.
must be a new thing that discovery option is defaulted off.

I wanted to make a system that could determine roughly the number of people in a room.

like this (last paragraph on this page):

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140606135907-49996066-bluetooth-proximity-marketing-how-can-retailers-benefit

Chet T16

That one needed to have the phones in discoverable mode. Back in 2007 when we were all rocking our nokias, bluetooth on = discoverable.

Back in the day i ued to have a usb bluetooth module hanging outside my sitting room window logging bluetooth devices with this: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/bluetooth_viewer.html

I just ran it in the office here and it only found laptops - no phones.

ozmo

Chet T16 wrote: »

I just ran it in the office here and it only found laptops - no phones.

Awww - spoilsports - so they did disable it - That's pretty close what I wanted do - only I was going to work a light display depending on how busy the room was.

What about if they pair to the HC module in the room - is there some communications ping going on that can be monitored that tells if the device is out and back in range of the room without having to install a custom app I wonder?

Chet T16

I'm not sure if the HC will do what you want. Maybe a BLE 4.0/4.1 module might. Or maybe a job for a pi?

ozmo

Chet T16 wrote: »

I'm not sure if the HC will do what you want. Maybe a BLE 4.0/4.1 module might. Or maybe a job for a pi?

Thanks- ill look into those options...