Estimating the number of people in an area : Using Bluetooth and WiFi signals

Abstract: In this world of the digital era, a large percentage of the world population and almost everyone in Sweden today owns a smartphone, and possibly even a smartwatch. By using this to our advantage, it would be possible to check whether an area is currently very busy or not, based on how many smartphones or other wearables technology it is possible to discover in the area. The approach chosen to dig into this problem was to research suitable hardware devices with Bluetooth and WiFi compatibility, that could detect probe requests broadcasted by smartphones or wearable devices in the area. The knowledge gained from the research in this thesis set the foundation for implementing a prototype with the desired functionality. Testing of the prototype was then conducted in a university library and analysed how it performed. Through testing the developed prototype, it revealed that it is possible to obtain an indication of whether an area is currently very crowded or not using Bluetooth and WiFi signals. A suggestion on how to proceed in creating more fine-tuned improvements is also described.