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With CEFRIEL's FREE-SPOT virtual communities being a fan will no longer be the same.
FREE-SPOT is set-up by making use of the innovative WiFi Ad- Hoc Multi Hop network solution developed by CEFRIEL.
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Dynamic communities of spectators
At the XX Olympic Winter Games Torino 2006, CEFRIEL presents a completely new platform for the creation of spontaneous virtual communities of fans, who, without any cost to them, will be able to communicate by voice and video, chat to each other, exchange photos and videos, and, in a totally new way, enjoy a sporting competition or event.
Sport and virtual communities
We might well wonder why, despite all the various multimedial equipment available today, going to the stadium to see a match or to a sportsfield to watch a game remains such an important activity.
Certainly, seeing something "live" is valuable, but the most worthwhile experience from the emotional point of view is that of being able to share with a large number of people one's passion for a player or a team.
With this in mind, in the very near future, new innovative technologies for creating virtual communities will make possible completely different ways of enjoying sporting events or games. FREE-SPOT, the platform developed by CEFRIEL offers a striking example of all that. Indeed, thanks to FREE-SPOT, fans with mobile phones or PDA equipped with WiFi connectivity can create a virtual community enabling them to pick out a friend whom they know to be present at the stadium.
Fans can find new friends with whom they can chat and exchange opinions on how the event is going.
But also they can transmit to other members of the community photos or videos of a goal taken from their own angle, not to mention communicate by voice and video and send instant messages. All these things are already possible through Bluetooth connections or the UMTS services, but with considerable differences.
FREE-SPOT platform makes it possible to communicate to large numbers of persons located in geographical areas, offers high band-width capacity, and does not use any pre-existent infrastructure.
In other words, enabling users to make use of all the described functions without any cost.
What exactly FREE-SPOT is
FREE-SPOT is a spontaneous free community that can be created whenever two or more persons are not far from each other.
Those taking part in a FREE-SPOT can chat, talk and share multimedia information without constraints of a network operator. FREE-SPOT is set-up by making use of the innovative WiFi Ad-Hoc Multi Hop network solution developed by CEFRIEL.
Thanks to this technology, every user terminal is able to re-transfer the data to other terminals in the network when it isn't the final recipient of the information. The network grows spontaneously, being both dynamic and adaptive, including new terminals when the latter require to enter FREE-SPOT.
In FREE-SPOT there is no such thing as a "central control" which defines roles and configurations, as it happens in traditional networks. Every node has the necessary computational intelligence to form a complex network.
CEFRIEL has also developed for Torino 2006 an intuitive graphic interface that enables all members of a FREE-SPOT to:
- Join an existing community, or create a new one;
- Use both public and private chat;
- Create, modify, and share a Personal Profile (with an automatic service matching other profiles present in the community);
- Be notified that a friend has entered the FREE-SPOT;
- Make and receive audio communications;
- See, take, and send photographs;
- Listen to, record, and send audio clips;
- Share all kinds of files;
- Gain access to functions on payment (such as, for example, that hooking up with Internet).
More FREE-SPOT platform areas of application
 
In general, FREE-SPOT is relevant in all situations in which dynamic communities of persons are created.
Especially in the areas of:
- Entertainment
- Major public events
- Health care
- Public and private transport
- Emergency services.
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