1. A service for showing real-time busyness of locations
CrowdFlow
A service for showing real-time busyness of locations
CrowdFlow
Service/App that shows the real-time busyness of locations

2. Main Idea App shows users live wait-times and future busyness
Free flow of information is good (economics 101)
Users will save time
More distributed stress on services
Inexpensive to set up (<$15 per location, one-time cost)
Main idea: tell the user how much they are going to wait
Economics, free flow of information is good for growing the economy because people can make better decisions
You want a coffee, app will tell you, Starbucks is 15 min, Tim Hortons is 5 min. You’re going to save 10 min of time.
This scales really well, if everyone uses the app, everyone can save 10 minutes.
Distributes the stress on a system, it can distribute people to different locations, and to different times. (Come back later, see graph)
The service costs about $15 to set up

3. The App User sees: Updates every 60 seconds
Basic indication of busyness
People in vicinity
People in line (if applicable)
Wait time (if applicable)
Chart with predicted data
Updates every 60 seconds
Web interface, accessible from any device
Here’s what the app looks like (also shows graphs)
Data can update every 60 seconds, but there are ways of shortening that
Accessible from any device

4. Applying the system at UBC
40+ food service locations run by UBC
Students will choose to eat at least busy location, and at the least busy time
Distributes the load over time and over locations
Shorter lineups overall, more students going to eat
Idea: install this system at UBC and see what the changes are
Have several controls and several experiments
Release at the start of September

5. The “Nodes” Small, low power USB devices
Can be installed in any outlet using a USB adapter
Total cost to make: $15
Require access to ubcvisitor network to function (to upload data)
Need to be placed near the line- up
Service requires a node
Be places at every location you want to monitor
Really cheap, needs WIFI.

6. User Interface Neural Net 1 7 4 Neural Net 2 3 Node Web API
ANN Service 1 5
Neural Net 2 2 6
How is works:
You need a node, piece of hardware that tracks “probe requests”.
System uses a web API, stores the data in a DB, then sends if to a ANN to be analyzed
Database
Neural Net 3

7. Why CrowdFlow’s Technology
Advantages
Disadvantages
CrowdFlow
Tracking probe
requests with nodes
Cheap. Very scalable. Transparent system.
Not as accurate as other methods.
Monitoring router connections
Slightly more accurate than probe requests.
Very expensive to set up. Not worth it to expand to small businesses.
Tracking mobile devices
Can track users no matter where they are.
Requires large initial userbase. Not transparent to users. Huge privacy risk.

8. Privacy Concerns
Nodes rely on probe requests, which are broadcasted publicly
Nodes cannot access or intercept data other than probe requests
Probe requests contain a MAC address (unique identifier),
MAC addresses are stripped before transmission. No personal information is ever stored.
Even if system was compromised, no personal information could be extracted.

9. Neural Network Analysis
CrowdFlow uses an Artificial Neural Network to predict how many people are around and what the lineup is like.
Needs to be “trained” by processing lots of data and having a person make observations from nearby
Raw data is summarized (mean, std_dev, skewness, etc..), then fed into system
Accurate given enough data

10. New Invention?
Papers have been written on location tracking using probe requests (triangulation)
Possibly a new application of existing technologies:
WiFi probe request tracking for lineup display
Not sure if patent is possible
Regardless, would like to launch pilot program very soon
Full launch in September

11. Commercialization Advertisements Charge Businesses API Calls
Place an advertisement on the interface
Higher PPC because of return users
Charge Businesses
Setup cost is very low
Reoccurring cost is even lower
Can charge $100/year and provide statistics
API Calls
A service like Yelp or Google Maps would like real-time data
Sell access to data, charge $1/100 calls

12. The End