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> Another is to estimate how busy a place really is based on traffic, in terms of #people, and #seats or #tables available. This could be especially useful for

by slig 8y ago

> Another is to estimate how busy a place really is based on traffic, in terms of #people, and #seats or #tables available. This could be especially useful for campuses (where is a good place to study?) or cafes. You might need some crowd-based approach to label ground truth, and it's unclear what the incentive would be. Google Maps does that. Search for a popular cafe on your area and you should see the "Popular times" graph with live data.

copperx 8y ago
I assume they do that by tracking how many Androids are at a given location; so that doesn't count those who are using iOS. Given Android's dominance though, not counting iOS devices might not be even skew the results significantly.
- matt4077 8y ago
  The pervasiveness of Android would mitigate random errors. It alone can not, however, mitigate systematic errors. Apple Stores (and, employing stereotypes for maximum effect, art galleries and organic food stores) would be undercounted. But, wait: Google only gives you relative data over time, where that error is irrelevant. Never mind.
- bigiain 8y ago
  I'd bet that any iOS device running Google Maps is probably listening for those beacons too and calling home to tell them. (And Google Maps is likely snitching on you via your own GPS as well, in the absence of Bluetooth beacons.)
matt4077 8y ago
There is also the yellow-ish overlay for busy areas (binary). Facebook pages for real-world locations also gives hourly foot traffic, segmented by age, local/tourist, and gender.
edm0nd 8y ago
>Google Maps does that. Search for a popular cafe on your area and you should see the "Popular times" graph with live data. Google also sends local businesses a Bluetooth Beacon to install on the ceiling inside their business to help with with getting the "popular times". It's called Project Beacon and any local US business can request one. http://g.co/beaconhelp http://g.co/beaconhelp "Project Beacon is designed to improve the performance of location-related features in Google products for your venue, such as popular times, reviews etc. The beacon itself is configured for just this purpose, and isn't re-configurable by the user. If you would like to obtain a beacon to use with our developer platform, you can find a list of manufacturers at g.co/beacons"

by slig 8y ago

copperx 8y ago

I assume they do that by tracking how many Androids are at a given location; so that doesn't count those who are using iOS. Given Android's dominance though, not counting iOS devices might not be even skew the results significantly.

matt4077 8y ago
The pervasiveness of Android would mitigate random errors. It alone can not, however, mitigate systematic errors. Apple Stores (and, employing stereotypes for maximum effect, art galleries and organic food stores) would be undercounted. But, wait: Google only gives you relative data over time, where that error is irrelevant. Never mind.
bigiain 8y ago
I'd bet that any iOS device running Google Maps is probably listening for those beacons too and calling home to tell them. (And Google Maps is likely snitching on you via your own GPS as well, in the absence of Bluetooth beacons.)

matt4077 8y ago

There is also the yellow-ish overlay for busy areas (binary). Facebook pages for real-world locations also gives hourly foot traffic, segmented by age, local/tourist, and gender.

edm0nd 8y ago

>Google Maps does that. Search for a popular cafe on your area and you should see the "Popular times" graph with live data. Google also sends local businesses a Bluetooth Beacon to install on the ceiling inside their business to help with with getting the "popular times". It's called Project Beacon and any local US business can request one. http://g.co/beaconhelp http://g.co/beaconhelp "Project Beacon is designed to improve the performance of location-related features in Google products for your venue, such as popular times, reviews etc. The beacon itself is configured for just this purpose, and isn't re-configurable by the user. If you would like to obtain a beacon to use with our developer platform, you can find a list of manufacturers at g.co/beacons"