Finder Ultimate
App that eases life
Anis went to attend a Christmas party in Gulshan. But unlike others, he felt he wasn't enjoying the occasion. Rather than becoming a party pooper, he left the place and before returning home in Dhanmondi, he decided to spend some quality time with his friends. But for that, he had to call a number of people to know their whereabouts at that moment. Understanding how much talk time would be wasted for this simple purpose, Shiblee Imtiaz Hasan, a computer science student of Brac University developed an application to make life easier. The application "Finder Ultimate" has been designed to provide users with physical location of others such as finding friends in a map and connecting with them. Not only people, it also helps finding places of interest and business nearby; news, alerts, events and buying offers in neighborhood; live chat and play multiplayer games with other users nearby. It doesn't end there; the app satisfies its users with stock update and personal data management and business information needs as well. Such flexibility has been possible by the multiplatform support of the application. The whole community will be connected to the system via internet and by simply using text-messaging system. There is a graphically rich web application for desktop users as well for those who want to take advantage of the large displays. The application has been developed mainly for the low-end phones, which cover a large portion of mobile phone users in Bangladesh. As Shiblee says, "A location based application was unimaginable for a low-end mobile device even a few months ago. To get a user's location, one would have to rely on a phone's GPS (Global Positioning System) app, which is only available in expensive handsets. This was the reason why there were no commercial applications available in Bangladesh which is based on a user's geographical location." Shiblee's innovation didn't go in vain as it clinched the first runner-up position in n the recently held 'Aloashbei Mobile Application Development Contest 2010'. Asked how the application works, Shiblee said it requires a mobile phone operator's server and their physical networking system. "Every mobile phone gets its signal from a triangulate zone, created by three physical networking towers around its location. And with these, latitude and longitude numbers of any specific mobile phone get recorded in that operator's server. When initiated, my app just synchronises with the latitude and longitude numbers, analyses it and gives an ultimate result of the location, just like Google Maps", said Shiblee. The developer also said the application provides unsurpassed location based features to all classes and ages of users who want to take advantage of information technology. From a high school student who loves to chat and be at the top of the game leaderboard; to a busy business owner who constantly needs updates on stock updates by texts or needs tasks to be notified; or even a university student who needs to post classified ads for tutoring as well. "Even Facebook and Twitter have not been overlooked; and users will be able update their tweets or Facebook status with their own geographical location simply by sending a text." Shiblee added. About his future plan, the Brac University undergraduate student said he plans to pursue PhD degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and to develop new technologies for the industry which will enhance the user experience in handheld devices, operating systems, web/software solutions.
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