Thumb: A real-time resource information sharing application over mobile phones

Information sharing plays a significant role in human daily life. With the development of the Internet and applications over it, we share almost all kinds of information in a much wider space and time scope that we never had. However, when it comes to sharing information about resources which are available in an instant manner and expire in a very short time, such as the cases in carpooling, train ticket resale and short-term discount information, the Internet is not that all-powerful. On the other hand, we have witnessed the rapid development of smart mobile phones over recent years, and which is gradually reshaping our way to learn and communicate. To the best of our knowledge, instant resource information sharing systems have not been available in this new environment. In this work, we develop and demonstrate Thumb, a system aiming to leverage the new functionalities of smart mobile phones and the Internet to allow users to share instant availability of resource information, especially for resources with extreme short life time.