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Ask HN: What is a good way to track movement indoors?

2 points by dalek2point3 ↗ HN
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?

6 comments

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runjake
MAC 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
You could try iBeacons, though they only work with iPhones.
hakanderyal
There are turn-key RFID solutions for that purpose. Employee/visitor badges with RFID chips + RFID readers across the building.
mfaggin
We 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
Thanks 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)