So many mobile ideas I come across involve either an application on the phone or access to a service via the phone’s web browser.

I came across a mobile solution today that is neither of the above. Path Intelligence’s FootPath™ Technology tracks phone users’ (by IMEI) location within a specific locality, for example a shopping centre.

It’s an interesting technology that seems to be currently used for measuring footfall and detecting when people wander into areas that are off limits. However, as the TimesOnline article shows, there are already concerns with respect to privacy.

However, I can see many more interesting possibilities if the system were made opt-in. This would solve the privacy issues and allow for user-centric features such as coupons, promotions, mapping stores, finding the rest of your family in the shopping complex and even a system to allow you to automatically pay and exit the car park.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.