Low cost computing enables the cultural sector to pursue distributed tracking and monitoring systems that were out of reach just a couple of years ago. See how the IMA is using ultra-affordable computing to build an onsite visitor tracking system, and how log analysis is performed in order to map tracking data.

1. Using commodity hardware as
an affordable means to track
on-site visitor flow
Gray Bowman
Application Developer gbowman@imamuseum.org
Indianapolis Museum of Art @latenightwgray
Kyle Jaebker
Director IMA Lab kjaebker@imamuseum.org
Indianapolis Museum of Art @kjaebker

2. Smartphone Growth
• NPD Group reported 70% Smartphone
Penetration in Q3 2012
• comScore (2013) detailed 123.3 million
Americans now own smartphones
Photo via Flickr user reticulating

3. Smartphone Growth
IMA Sept. 2012 Exit Survey
• 73.3% of respondents carry smartphones
• 25-44 Year olds, 83.7% carry smartphones
Photo via Flickr user reticulating

4. Why use WiFi?
- Optimal range
- Visitors already BYOD, use WiFi
- Low cost hackable adapters
- Available diagnostic tools

5. Hardware
Low Cost ~ $70 per device
• Raspberry Pi
• USB Wi-fi Adapter (monitor mode)
• SD card

6. Agent Software
• Linux – Raspbian OS
• Tshark – Packet Analyzer
• Python
• Control Tshark
• Handle Failures
• Transmit Data

7. Server Software
• Python
• Django – Service Endpoints & Reporting
• MySQL - data storage
Photo via Flickr user Martin Skott

8. Visitor Analytics
• Vflow01 installed: 12/21/2012 (118 days)
• Vflow02 installed: 03/26/2013 (23 days)
• Vflow03 installed: 03/21/2013 (28 days)
• 53,637 unique devices detected
• 455 per day
• Unique per agent
• Vflow01: 45886, 388 per day
• Vflow02: 7222, 314 per day
• Vflow03: 13529, 483 per day

9. Visitor Analytics

10. Visitor Analytics: Devices vs Trafsys

11. Visitor Analytics: Frequency

12. Possible Applications: Flow

13. Possible Applications: Triangulation

14. Drawbacks: Multi-Device Detection
Photo via Flickr user DaveOnFlickr

15. Drawbacks: Range
Photo via Flickr user p4nc0np4n

16. Drawbacks: Privacy
Photo via Flickr user nitot

17. Drawbacks: Wi-fi Enabled?

18. Next Steps
• Range Testing
• More data collection points
• Enhanced software
• Cleaning Data
Photo via Flickr user pawpaw67