BluePartner: application to promote human relationships through mobile devices

The low cost and low battery consumption of Bluetooth devices, allied with a plethora of novel functionalities, has promoted the widespread adoption of the Bluetooth technology. Nowadays most computing devices with networking requirements are equipped with a Bluetooth interface. In particular, the integration of this technology in mobile phones has increased the number of potential users to millions in a short period of time. In this paper we present BluePartner, a novel application for mobile social networks. BluePartner was developed to be used in mobile devices, and to take advantage of Bluetooth functionalities to promote human relationships. Our application periodically scans the wireless environment to search for other users of BluePartner; when found, an exchange of personal cards takes place where preferences, likes/dislikes, etc. are available to assess the degree of matching between both users. High degrees of matching result in an exchange of more information, so that both users are aware of how to reach each other in a future. Contrarily to other efforts to promote human relationships through virtual reality environments, BluePartner embraces a paradigm where computers are invisible, operating in the background to achieve a more easier integration with users and their environment.