Electrical and Computer Engineering

PeopleFinder

Vitaly Gordievsky

Alex Trefonas

Scott Richard

Matt Beckford

Preliminary Design Review

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Background Wide spread use of social

networking sites• Facebook• MySpace• Many clones of Facebook

Facebook is particularly popular amongst college students• Major• Graduation Year• List of courses• Status Bar

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More than 110 million active users

Facebook is the 4th most-trafficked website in the world (comScore)

Facebook is the most-trafficked social media site in the world (comScore)

More than 400,000 developers and entrepreneurs

Over 24,000 applications have been built on Facebook Platform

140 new applications added per day

More than 95% of Facebook members have used at least one application built on Facebook Platform

General Growth*

Background

*http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

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Background (continued) Cell phones are becoming

increasingly popular with applications and WIFI• iPhone• Android (open source)

“90% of the US population have cell phones” - Roberto Padovani

People feel the need to keep close contact with friends

People want to know where their friends are and what they are doing

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Purpose of PeopleFinder• Locate friends on university campus through wireless

connectivity and Facebook application• The application to use before making a call• Easily available and convenient• Brings friends together one step closer• Quickly know status and location of friends

Features • Available to all Facebook users in UMASS network• End users improve the functionality continually• Free

Concept

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Vision

User Interaction• Location updates to/from Facebook• Cell phone (iPhone)• Desktop/Laptop• Friends’ location displayed on campus map

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Design Challenges

Location• How do I know where I am on campus/building?

Wireless communication• How do I connect to the UMASS wireless network and

collect information?

Facebook/Windows Application• How do I interact with the API?

Third-party server• How do I create and maintain robust and versatile

databases that will be easy to work with

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Design Solutions

Wired/Wireless Facebook Application (UI)

• Interactive map

Third Party Server• Stores relevant location information

Windows Application• C++ using Windows API• Runs in background• Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

• Identify MAC address of nearby routers• Triangulate location from user-created database of signal

strengths

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Block Diagram

HTTP

NDIS Protocol

Internet

FacebookOur Third Party

Web Server

User’s Laptop

Windows

PeopleFinder.exe Web Browser

Wireless Card Wired Network Card

MySQL database

Apache / PHP server

PeopleFinder App.

Vitaly GordievskyAlex TrefonasScott RichardMatt BeckfordTeam Gong

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Facebook Application

Social networking growth• Users make the program better continually by providing

new data to application• Users see their friends using PeopleFinder• Rapid growth from new users

User Interface• Users interact with PeopleFinder solely through

Facebook Privacy Settings

• User sets which of their friends are allowed to view location

• All other users are represented by unlabeled dots or hidden

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Third Party Server

Stores table of known network locations Communicates with the Facebook application Stores all relevant user data Apache server with PHP (for dynamic content)

and MySQL (database framework) installed Server located in datacenter in US

• Highly reliable• Fast processing

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Windows Application

Specifications• PeopleFinder.exe• Minimal user configuration• Runs in background of Windows• Periodically scans for new wireless signals• Looks at existing wired connections• Communicates with third party server with HTTP

requests

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Design Alternatives

GPS• Keychain transmitter/receiver

Poor man’s GPS• Hot spots

WIFI triangulation Manually map out campus ourselves

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Realistic Constraint

Waterfall processes (Time constraint 8 months)

The best-known and oldest process is the waterfall model, where developers are to follow these steps in order:

Requirements specification (AKA Verification) (1 month) Design (2 months) Construction (AKA implementation or coding) (2 month) Integration(1/2 month) Testing and debugging (AKA validation) (1/2 month) Installation (AKA deployment) (1 month) Maintenance (forever)

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Feasibility

Facebook provides an easy to use API for developing new applications

Low startup costs All UMass routers have static MAC addresses NDIS protocols allow communication between the

network interface card and your Windows programs • Can be programmed easily using Windows Visual Studio

Many Facebook users are enthusiastic about trying new applications

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Team Roles

Project Manager• Vitaly

Application Layer• PHP/MySQL

• Alex• C++/ Win app

• Scott

GUI design • Vitaly• Matt

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MDR Deliverables

Data table of signal strengths Windows User Interface

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Questions

Comments / Questions?