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At precisely 13:05:27 yesterday Big Pun arrived at an east London cafe. As the Big Pun name flashed up on a mobile screen, his unique code was automatically sent to a central database. There the code was made available for checking against his other movements, providing a detailed map of his whereabouts over time. In the cafe a man with a moustache had walked in at precisely the same time and ordered a cappuccino - so that, presumably, was Big Pun. This citizen was not alone. Among those tucking into a late Turkish brunch at the same cafe - oblivious of being watched - were Sci_BLUETOOTH, Nokia 6233 Johnnyo, SGH-600, Ed Laptop, W810i, MiSDH and a woman called Linda. The scanner that captured Big Pun's location was one of at least 1,000 scanners scouring for Bluetooth signals across the world yesterday under the Cityware programme. When scientists at Bath University devised a way to analyse how people move around cities three years ago, they were not interested in identifying who was going where, but in looking at people's movements overall. They planted prototype scanners that could be downloaded on to any computer around the city to track the Bluetooth signals emitted by people's mobile phones and laptops. A Bluetooth connection functions like an invisible cable, joining two separate devices, such as a phone and hands-free earpiece. The signal sent out can be detected if it is within a 10-metre radius of a Cityware scanner. The database could trace, for example, how someone went off to a pub at 10pm and returned home at 9am. Now available over the internet, the software means thousands of journeys are being recorded daily - including the man known as Big Pun, who left the cafe, cappuccino in hand, exactly six minutes and 52 seconds after he was first detected.
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