Population Analytics through a WiFi-based Edge Computing Platform

这个项目的重点是创造新的技术来理解一个感兴趣的空间的人口分析，例如，一个购物中心，一条繁忙的街道，或整个城市。人口行为的知识对许多应用都很重要。例如，了解哪些是城市人行道的繁忙角落，可以为城市规划者提供在哪里投资城市资源的输入。了解人们在购物中心聚集的地方，使官员能够计划在哪里提供有用的服务，例如信息亭、平面图等等。如今，收集人口分析数据的过程非常繁琐——一些商店和商店使用人工柜台来跟踪有多少人在使用无线技术。这个项目的技术贡献是双重的。首先，它试图通过减少所需基础设施点的数量来降低确定人员位置的复杂性。其次，人口分析的自动化方法充满了隐私问题，而这个项目正在研究减轻这种担忧的技术。参与该项目的人员将接受广泛领域的重要技术技能培训，包括无线技术、隐私技术和机器学习。为了证明这个项目的可行性，PI团队正在威斯康辛州麦迪逊市的市区部署该系统的一个版本。该团队正在与许多当地合作伙伴合作——麦迪逊市、威斯康星大学书店、5NINES（当地互联网服务提供商）和一些当地参与者。作为由NSF和NIST主办的全球城市团队挑战赛的一部分，他们一起参加了这项技术演示。

The focus of this project is on creating new techniques for understanding population analytics over a space of interest, e.g., a shopping mall, a busy street, or an entire city. Knowledge of population behavior important for many applications. For instance, knowledge of which are the busy corners of city sidewalk can provide city planners with input on where to invest city resources. Knowledge of where people congregate in a shopping mall allows officials to plan where to provide useful services, e.g., information kiosks, floor plans, and more. The process of gathering population analytics today is tedious -- some stores and shops use manual people counters to track how many persons are entering wireless technologies.The technical contributions of this project are two-fold. First, it is attempting to reduce the complexity of determining location of people by reducing the number of infrastructure points needed. Second, automated approaches to population analytics are fraught with privacy concerns, and this project is examining techniques that mitigate such concerns.Personnel involved in this project will be trained in significant technical skills across a broad set of domains including wireless technologies, privacy techniques, and machine learning.To demonstrate the feasibility of this project, the PI team is deploying a version of the system in an urban downtown area of Madison, WI. The team is collaborating with a number of local partners -- the city of Madison, the University of Wisconsin Bookstore, 5NINES (a local Internet Service Provider), and a few local participants. Together they are entering this technology demonstration as part of the Global City Teams Challenge being hosted by NSF and NIST.