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v7.3
Smartphone detection
Meshlium
X
treme
14. Smartphone detection
Meshlium allows to detect iPhone and Android devices and in general any device which works with WiFi or
Bluetooth interfaces.
These devices can be detected without the need of being connected to a specific Access Point, enabling the
detection of any smartphone, laptop or hands-free car kit device which comes into the coverage area of Meshlium.
The idea is to be able to measure the amount of people and cars which are present in a certain point at a specific
time, allowing the study of the evolution of the traffic congestion of pedestrians and vehicles.
Figure: Smartphone detection
Users have to do nothing to be detected as the WiFi and Bluetooth radios integrated in their smartphones
periodically send a “hello!” message telling about their presence. The information read from each user contains:
•
The MAC address of the wireless interface, which allows to identify it uniquely
•
The strength of the signal (RSSI), which gives us the average distance of the device from the scanning point
•
The vendor of the smartphone (Apple, Nokia, etc)
•
The WiFi Access Point where the user is connected (if any) and the Bluetooth friendly name. Users no connected
to an AP will be showed as “free users”.
•
The Class of Device (CoD) in case of Bluetooth which allows us to differentiate the type of device (smartphone,
hands-free, laptop, LAN/network AP). With this parameter we can differentiate among pedestrians and
vehicles.
The coverage areas may be modified by changing the power transmission of the radio interfaces allowing the
creation of different scanning zones from a few meters (in order to study a specific point) to dozens of meters (to
study the whole street or even the entire floor of a shopping mall).
