E-Shadow: Lubricating Social Interaction Using Mobile Phones

In this paper, we propose E-Shadow, a distributed mobile phone-based local social networking system. E-Shadow has two main components: (1) Local profiles. They enable E-Shadow users to record and share their names, interests, and other information with fine-grained privacy controls. (2) Mobile phone based local social interaction tools. E-Shadow provides mobile phone software that enables rich social interactions. The software maps proximate users´ local profiles to their human owners and enables user communication and content sharing. We have designed and implemented E-Shadow on mobile phones. In our E-Shadow system, we allow users to perform dynamic and layered information publishing, making use of interpersonal relevance in space and time. Our system also provides a mechanism to help users perform direction-driven localization of an E-Shadow and match it with its owner. Experiments on real world Windows Mobile phones and large-scale simulations show that our system disseminates information efficiently and helps receivers find the direction of a specific E-Shadow with accuracy. We believe our E-Shadow concept and system can lead to a more tightly-knit temporary community in one´s physical vicinity.