Thursday, May 5, 2011

Simulating pandemic spread with a phone app?

Source: BBC News
Researchers at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory have developed (along with 7 other institutions) the FluPhone app that tracks how people interact and potentially spread influenza or other pathogens.  The app uses Bluetooth technology to anonymously record interactions between volunteers. When cellphones come into close proximity, the interaction is recorded and data is sent to the researchers.

A just-released version of the FluPhone app can transmit fake pathogens to other phones so that the team can randomly "infect" one phone and see how it spreads within the volunteer community. Pretty cool. I wouldn't head to your favorite app store to volunteer just yet, since this study appears confined to the UK and Nokia phones. I actually forgot that Nokia made mobile phones.

Source: BBC News, May 4, 2011
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