Methods and apparatus for extrapolating person and device counts
View Patent ↗Methods and apparatus for providing statistics on the number, distribution and/or flow of people or devices in a geographic region based on active wireless device counts are described. Wireless devices may be of different types e.g., cell phones, PDAs, etc. Wireless communications centers report the number and type of active devices in the geographic region serviced by the wireless communications center and/or indicate the number of devices entering/leaving the serviced region. The active wireless device information is correlated to one or more targeted geographical areas. Population counts are extrapolated from the device information for the targeted geographic areas. Traffic and/or flow information is generated from changes in the device counts or population estimates over time and/or from information on the number of active devices entering/leaving a region. Reports may include predictions of crowd population characteristics based on information about the types and/or number of different wireless devices being used.
1. A method of processing active wireless device statistics, the method comprising:
receiving statistics on the number of active wireless devices in at least one communications cell;
correlating the received statistics to a target geographic region of interest to determine an estimated number of active wireless devices in the target geographic region of interest; and
estimating the number of people in the target geographic region of interest from the estimated number of active wireless devices in the target geographic region of interest.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving statistics includes:
receiving information indicating the location of devices within said at least one communications cell; and
wherein said target geographic region of interest is a portion of said at least one communications cell.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the received statistics include a first count corresponding to the number of active devices in a first communications cell and a second count corresponding to the number of active devices in a second communications cell, wherein the first count is a count of a first type of wireless device and said second count is a count of a second type of wireless device which is different from said first type.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first type of wireless device is a cell phone and the second type of wireless device is a personal data assistant.
5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising: predicting characteristics of the people in the target geographic region of interest from the type and number of active wireless devices in the target geographic region of interest.
6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the step of:
generating a report including the estimate of the number of people in the target geographic region of interest and information on the predicted characteristics of the people.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating the number of people in the target geographic region of interest includes:
performing an extrapolation operation on the estimated number of active wireless devices in the geographic region of interest to produce the estimate of the number of people in the geographic region of interest.
8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
generating a report including the estimate of the number of people in the geographic region of interest; and outputting said report.
9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
predicting the distribution of the estimated number of people in the target geographic region of interest from the received statistics on the number of active wireless devices.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
generating a report including the estimate of the number of people in the target geographic region of interest and information on the predicted distribution of the estimated number of people.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of receiving statistics on the number of active wireless devices includes:
receiving active wireless device statistics corresponding to different points in time; and
generating, from received active wireless device statistics corresponding to at least two different points in time, information on the flow of traffic in the target geographic region of interest.
12. A method of generating a traffic flow report, the method comprising the steps of:
collecting active wireless device statistics from a communications cell over a period of time;
correlating the received statistics to at least one target geographic region;
detecting changes in the collected active wireless device statistics correlated to said at least one geographic region; and
generating a report including traffic flow information for said at least one geographic region based on detected changes in the collected active wireless device statistics.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the detected changes include at least one of an increase and a decrease in the number of active wireless devices in a communications cell.
14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the detected changes include changes in the identity of the active wireless devices being serviced by the cell.
15. An apparatus for estimating the number of people in a geographic region, the apparatus comprising:
an interface for receiving an active wireless device count from at least one communications cell;
means for correlating the received count to a target geographic region to determine an estimated number of active wireless devices in the target geographic region; and
means for estimating based on the estimated number of active wireless devices the number of people in the geographic region including at least a portion of said communication cell.
16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein said means for estimating the number of people further includes: means for performing an extrapolation operation on the estimate of the number of active wireless devices in the geographic region to produce the estimate of the number of people in the geographic region.