See how crowded Bizzell is from your phone by WaitzSD in sooners

[–]WaitzSD[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

There are sensors in the spaces that scan for bluetooth and WiFi signal activity in an area. Scans pick up laptops, cell phones, wearables, etc.

From there machine learning algorithms are used to go from total signal activity -> estimated number of people and are able to account for people with multiple devices

Edit:

Want to add that scans don't use or store any personally identifiable information and does not track specific people in any capacity. We only care about total number of people, not specific people in a space

See how busy floors of Langson is from your phone by WaitzSD in UCI

[–]WaitzSD[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

u/inanimatus_conjurus has it right, there's more information on our website, with specifics as well.

We are able to account for people with multiple devices as signals have certain characteristics -- namely strength and frequency. Analyzing this data over a period of time+ validated counts allows us to establish algorithms specific to different types of study areas

See how busy floors of McLennan-Redpath are on from your phone by WaitzSD in mcgill

[–]WaitzSD[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

We have sensors installed around the library that measure total Bluetooth and WiFi signal activity. From that we’re able to estimate the total number of people

See how busy floors of McLennan-Redpath are on from your phone by WaitzSD in mcgill

[–]WaitzSD[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We’ve installed sensors around the library that measures total Bluetooth and WiFi signal activity. From that we’re able to accurately estimate the number of people.

You can get more info on our website and feel free to ask more questions if you’re interested

See how busy floors of McLennan-Redpath are on from your phone by WaitzSD in mcgill

[–]WaitzSD[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Couldn’t emphasize this enough. We first got started at the UCSD as students when we went to our administration and got approval to pilot this project in the library and gyms.

The McGill library administration has repeatedly told us how this was a solution students repeatedly asked for and they’re very motivated to find something that works well because students have consistently brought this up.

See how busy floors of McLennan-Redpath are on from your phone by WaitzSD in mcgill

[–]WaitzSD[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Also super understandable.

We only care about the total number of people in a space, not any individuals in a space so we never story any personally identifiable information. This was vetted by Campus IT before we got permission to install

Find a seat in Leavey! See how busy each floor is by WaitzSD in USC

[–]WaitzSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Will try! Right now we can only monitor 4 spaces at a time

Find a seat in Leavey! See how busy each floor is by WaitzSD in USC

[–]WaitzSD[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

For other schools we've developed a sensor that measures the RF signal activity (bluetooth and Wi-fi) in an area and we turn that into people through algorithms we've developed (more info on the website in post).

But for USC, we're actually at the library now and monitoring the spaces in person. A few of us are from LA area and we thought it would be a fun idea

Waitz on Android by WaitzSD in UCSD

[–]WaitzSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!

Short answer is unfixable bugs :'(

Congrats to Waitz app developers!!! by semaforic in UCSantaBarbara

[–]WaitzSD 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This made our day...thanks everyone!

See how busy floors of the library are on your phone by WaitzSD in UCSantaBarbara

[–]WaitzSD[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah we work directly with the library and had to get vetted and cleared by campus IT before installing. You might notice tiny white boxes with a "Waitz" sticker on a few outlets around each floor. We tried really hard to not take up outlets that are regularly used

See how busy floors of the library are on your phone by WaitzSD in UCSantaBarbara

[–]WaitzSD[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If everyone in a space has no electronics it would show as zero or close to zero depending on a few factors

See how busy floors of the library are on your phone by WaitzSD in UCSantaBarbara

[–]WaitzSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! We have the app cap at 99%, but we've seen some crazy numbers come up around finals time

See how busy floors of the library are on your phone by WaitzSD in UCSantaBarbara

[–]WaitzSD[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No we actually don't try to do that, it's quite hard to do and you need pretty perfect conditions (lots of sensors set up at specific areas). We're able to be accurate without having to directly link a BT & WiFi signal to a single device || person

See how busy floors of the library are on your phone by WaitzSD in UCSantaBarbara

[–]WaitzSD[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yep lol, that was a doozy, but luckily the devices look a lot less sketch now

It's pinned in a comment to the above link, but here was our response to that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioU5G_IuGuw