TECHNOLOGY: By measuring mobile phones instead of people, property owner Jernhusen will get more accurate figures on how many people visit Stockholm Central Station and how visitors move inside the waiting hall. This makes it possible to create a more pleasant and efficient experience for travellers. The new measurement technology comes from Bumbee Labs.
Stockholm Central Station is one of the most visited places in the Nordics, with well over 200,000 people passing through every day.
“For Bumbee Labs it is very exciting to work with the central station,” says Karl Samuelsson, CEO of Bumbee Labs. “Above all because our technology is so well suited to environments where large numbers of visitors move within a small area over short periods. We believe our precise data will help Jernhusen a great deal in its continued work to improve the experience for its visitors.”
The new method measures Wi-Fi signals from mobile phones. Earlier visitor counters measured how many people passed certain points, and it is difficult to get accurate visitor figures, especially during peak-hour flows, where the margin of error can be large. By instead measuring the Wi-Fi signals emitted by mobile phones, you get both a more reliable picture of the number of visitors and of how flows look inside the building. The new measurement system is being tested and evaluated at Stockholm Central Station during 2018.
“Handling the large flows we have is a challenge. We constantly strive to make the station as efficient as possible,” says Kristina Holmqvist, marketing manager for Region Stockholm at Jernhusen. “With reliable data from the new measurement system we can better plan where different service functions or shops should be placed and how we can adapt doors and passages.”
Bumbee Labs’ measurement method has been reviewed and approved by the Swedish Data Protection Authority from a privacy perspective.
Axel Ohlsson axel (at) fastighetssverige.se