Your world - connected

Researchers in the UK have found a way to combine Bluetooth technology with Facebook in order to analyze user interactions, reports The BBC.

A software called Cityware can track the interactions of Facebook members in the real world via Bluetooth signals. Doing so lets researchers see how often people with public online profiles encounter each other - knowingly or not - in the offline realm.
Information is gathered from nodes scattered throughout locations in the UK and US Those nodes collect the data of Bluetooth devices that wander by, then match them with Facebook profiles enabled under the program.

When people login onto their Facebook profiles, they're then able to see a list of people they've inadvertently come across, as long as those people are also signed up for the program.
The research is intended to demonstrate how ideas go viral among people in close proximity. It could be expanded to alert others to when fellow Facebook users with similar defined interests are nearby.