Is it possible to detect cellphone IDs in an enclosed area

cellphoneRF

I'm working on a project where I need to be able to identify different cellphones in an area.
Ideally I need a way to identify when specific cellphones enter and exit a range – this could be IMEI or Mac addresses (or any other unique ID).
I know that this is possible with wifi to get the MAC but it depends on the phone being set to autodiscover open networks – is it possible by using some RF device/scanner?

Best Answer

See "IMSI catcher": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher

The legality of this varies, and I believe there are more passive versions available. Certainly there are companies offering this as a service (for use in shopping centres to get customer information, for example).

Building your own may be possible with software-defined-radio and "OpenBTS".