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Ask HN: What is a good way to track movement indoors?
I'm looking to track the movement of people in an indoor office building (with their permission) over an extended period of time. I would like to know who is meeting whom, at what times, how often etc -- the basic idea is to visualize physical interaction.
My thought was to use cellphone signatures, mac addresses etc to make this happen. Can anyone think of a good solution? Do I have to build something myself or is there something out there?
- thejay 12y agoNavisens does this with a software-only solution, check them out http://www.navisens.com/ http://www.navisens.com/
- runjake 12y agoMAC addresses won't be good for some Android devices and any Apple iOS device running iOS 8.0 or later. Some Android devices and all iOS 8 devices randomize their Wi-Fi interface MAC addresses during polls. You could do Bluetooth, but some percentage will have it turned off. Since this is a voluntary deal, you could just have them turn Bluetooth on when they want to be tracked and run periodic scans. Trivia: I once ran something like this when I lived next door to a prostitute and was able to track her customer arrival and departure times (along with BT MACs, device names, etc).
- bonzoq 12y agoYou could try iBeacons, though they only work with iPhones.
- hakanderyal 12y agoThere are turn-key RFID solutions for that purpose. Employee/visitor badges with RFID chips + RFID readers across the building.
- mfaggin 12y agoWe at GiPStech are developing a solution based on anomalies of geomagnetic field (similar to Indoor Atlas) integrated with RF (wifi and beacons) to get precise to 1 meter / 3 ft with little or no infrastructure :-) In the meantime, depending on the localization accuracy you need you can resort to wifi tracking (10-15 meters) or Low Energy Bluethooth beacons (2-5 meters, perhaps adopting the Apple protocol called "iBeacons"). Some solutions are available "off the shelves" in the market, look at Indoo.rs or Estimote or Loctronix, but there are many others
- boernsj 12y agoThanks for mentioning us. As you said we provide indoor navigation as a mobile SDK for Android and iOS based on iBeacons, sensors, etc. We do provide a free plan to test everything out. Just register at my.indoo.rs If you have an questions I am happy to help. Bernd (co-founder,indoo.rs)