An Android/LAMP Mobile In/Out Board Based on Wi-Fi Fingerprinting

Document Type

Article

Version

publisher_pdf

Publication Date

10-31-2011

Abstract

Library technology and other professionals with diverse skills must be able to locate each other during the workday, in order to most responsively serve their clients. While staff often carry cellular phones, contact can be especially challenging given the constant, highly mobile nature of library work, especially on larger campuses with variable cellular phone service. Western Michigan University (WMU) Libraries has developed an Android/LAMP application that library staff may use on their increasingly prevalent Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices to “check in” at various locations where they do work, so that their colleagues may locate them as needed. The application takes advantage of WMU’s widespread Wi-Fi network, a set of free platform and software development tools and open standards, and methods from the computer science literature, and overcomes GPS and telephony limitations. This article describes the application, which is based on Wi-Fi fingerprinting, and suggests how other developers could use it and new methods from the computer science literature as starting points to create their own applications.

Published Citation

Kelley, Keith, Karlis Kaugars and Scott Garrison. "An Android/LAMP Mobile In/Out Board Based on Wi-Fi Fingerprinting." Code4Lib Journal 15 (2011). Web.

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