Floor-level Occupancy Estimation of a Multi-Story Building Using Coarse Wi-Fi Data
Date
2023-05
Authors
Bobo, Ryan
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Abstract
In recent years, there has been an extraordinary increase in wireless capable devices and network infrastructure, which spawned a corresponding rise in data produced from the interactions of these technologies. Mobile devices constantly roam , leading to a perpetual dialog between a mobile device and wireless access points. This dialogue generates a continuous stream of device-specific data, including but not limited to a device's media access control address, time of access, and received signal strength. Given the knowledge of the access point’s location and received signal strength, it is possible to infer the position of user devices and estimate their mobility and occupancy. This paper presents two methods for accurately measuring floor-level occupancy in a multi-story building at Texas State University using coarse Wi-Fi log data. The first method employs a static filter, while the second incorporates user-role data and user location to create a dynamic filter. Quantitative methods are used to evaluate these filters against field-collected reference data and existing internal people-counting sensors. Our results demonstrate that the dynamic filter, leveraging variable thresholds, provides a more accurate estimation of occupancy compared to the fixed 5-minute static filter which consistently overestimated occupancy. This research sheds light on the potential of dynamic filters derived from user-role data for precise floor-level occupancy estimations, with implications for various applications.
Description
Keywords
wi-fi, occupancy, indoor, floor-level
Citation
Bobo, R. (2023). Floor-level occupancy estimation of a multi-story building using coarse wi-fi data. Masters of Applied Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.