FAQ: Waitz in the Dining Halls and CLICC Spaces in Powell
Overview
Occuspace’s Waitz sensors installed in the Dinning Halls and CLICC spaces in Powell, provide users with real-time data (Waitz - UCLA) on relative busy-ness of these areas.
Download: Waitz (iOS), Waitz (Android)
To view UCLA's spaces, tap "Choose Campus," scroll down to "UCLA," and tap "UCLA."
Project description
During the busiest times of the year, we regularly hear from students regarding how challenging it can be to find an uncrowded place to eat or study. This concern has increased with COVID. To help address this concern, Housing & Hospitality Services and CLICC (Campus Library Instructional Computing Commons) worked with Occuspace, the makers of the Waitz technology, to display how busy the Dining Halls and CLICC spaces are in real-time. This information is presented by room, so that students can “know before they go” and save time finding an uncrowded space. Occuspace sensors have been installed in the Dining Halls and CLICC spaces in Powell to provide students with real-time data on the relative busyness of these areas.
Starting November, 2021, students could download the free Waitz mobile app (available for both Android and iOS devices) to know how busy the Dining Halls are beforehand. Starting April, 27, 2022, students can also see the CLICC spaces (3rd fl CLICC classrooms and 1st fl CLICC Lab) in the Powell Library Building.
How does it work? Is my data protected?
Occuspace uses custom IoT sensors that scan for radio signals (Bluetooth & WiFi) in an area. These signals are emitted by laptops, cell phones, wearables, and other Bluetooth/WiFi-enabled devices. Total signal activity is analyzed to estimate the number of people. Scans see the MAC address of all devices in the area, which are immediately hashed (cannot be decrypted) on the sensor. This means that no one, ourselves included, can view specific MAC address information, protecting the privacy of individuals. For more information on Waitz's privacy policy, click here.
Housing & Hospitality Services, CLICC, and Occuspace are committed to protecting your privacy. Occuspace does not collect or keep data on individual people. MAC address information is immediately hashed (cannot be decrypted), and no personally identifiable information is ever processed or stored on Occuspace servers.
Occuspace/Waitz FAQs
What about privacy?
Occuspace does not use, store, or share any personally identifiable information collected from their sensors internally, with clients, or third parties. For more information visit their privacy policy here: https://occuspace.io/public/assets/occuspacePrivacyPolicy.pdf.
Does Waitz track individuals?
Occuspace was architected with privacy in mind and we are committed to protecting individual identities. The design of Occuspace makes it impossible to track any individual and no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is ever stored.
The Bluetooth and WiFi MAC addresses are irreversibly hashed immediately on the sensor CPU and never stored in memory. Hashing is performed with SHA256 and reduced in size to make it impossible to reverse. The sensors only transmit hashed data to the Occuspace servers. After hashed data is successfully sent to Occuspace servers, it is deleted from the sensor.
What if I don’t want my device to be pinged?
To keep your device from sending out signals that can be seen by devices like Occuspace sensors, simply turn off your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on your electronic device.
How accurate is the data?
Accuracy ranges from 80% - 95% depending on the size of the location (bigger locations are more accurate).
What if I have multiple devices?
Occuspace developed proprietary machine learning algorithms to account for variable numbers of devices per person. Through thousands of manual headcounts, the technology continually learns and calibrates itself. The algorithm developed ensures that Waitz can account for a variable number of devices per person.
What is Occuspace/Waitz?
Occuspace was founded by three electrical engineering students at UC San Diego who were tired of looking for a seat at their library. They decided to make a mobile app (aka Waitz) showing how busy every floor was in real-time. The app was a big hit with their fellow students, so the founders decided to continue spreading this service to additional university campuses. The company, named Occuspace, now gives real-time busyness information to thousands of college students every day through it’s Waitz technology.
Who should I contact if I have questions?
For questions or comments about Waitz, please contact the Student Technology Center at techctr@ha.ucla.edu (310-825-3400) or the Library IT Service Desk at techhelp@library.ucla.edu (310-825-7557).
To inquire more about Occuspace - visit https://occuspace.io or email info@occuspace.io.