Graduation Year
Spring 2014
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Mathematical Sciences
Reader 1
Arthur Lee
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2014 Joe S. Newbry
Abstract
One challenge associated with developing location-based social applications for iOS devices is building a framework on top of Apple’s Core Bluetooth Framework to drive user discovery. Many applications on Apple’s App Store use Bluetooth to enable location-based user discovery. These Social Location-Based Frameworks are private and often are lacking. An ideal Social Location-Based Bluetooth Framework would be public, would be responsive while the application is minimized, have a light battery footprint, and securely transfer the necessary data to enable social interaction. Samantha, a Social Location-Based Framework, meets all of these characteristics.
In a Test Application, Samantha took no more than 5 seconds to start up and discover all nearby users. The average discovery time was 3.5 seconds. In addition the battery draw, measured using Apple’s Battery Monitoring Instrument, during testing never exceed 1/20. This means an application running Samantha in the background for a 12-hour period would not significantly drain the battery.
In terms of security, Samantha transfers a Unique User Identifier (UUID) across Bluetooth than contains no sensitive information. This UUID, a string of random characters, contains no personal information and it is only useful because it allows specific identification of a nearby user in a database holding additional information. This two-step process ensures that confidential information is never exposed.
An example application, Ripple, uses Samantha to create a location-based social application and highlights the framework’s intended use.
Recommended Citation
Newbry, Joe S., "Samantha: A Social Location-Based Framework for iOS Applications" (2014). CMC Senior Theses. 939.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/939
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
