Beacons to reduce passengers stress

How your phone could help speed you through New York City’s busiest Airport ?

It may be disconcerting to know your phone can be used to track your every step, but that information can also be used for good — at least at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

An entire system was launched this week at Terminal 4 to track the location of travelers’ phones in order to measure wait times at security checkpoints, customs areas and even the taxi queue.

As passengers enter the terminal and maneuver through the checkpoints, the tracking system monitors Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals from smartphones.

Considering that 64% of American adults own a smartphone, and an Expedia survey last year found 94% of leisure travelers bring their mobile device with them, tracking phone signals is now one of the most accurate measures of passenger traffic.

“It tracks your mobile phone, and most people have either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth,” Daryl Jameson, vice president IT and baggage systems, told Mashable. “There are sensors placed strategically along the process. Your phone is always emitting these signals.”

“Beacons capture the signals, and as you pass each beacon the system calculates your travel time,” he said. “It uses mean time, not average, to figure out what the total process or wait time is. It drops the ones that are too high or too low, and the system is smart enough to realize if you don’t [pass] each beacon in the correct order, it will immediately drop your information. Same if you go in the wrong direction.”

The employees at the airport receive the information, and the company has taken the additional step of broadcasting the wait times on monitors so passengers can plan accordingly.

“Information takes away uncertainty,” Gert-Jan de Graaff, president and CEO of JFKIAT, told Mashable. “We’re taking away anxiety, and providing information based on which [passengers] can make decisions.”

read more at : http://mashable.com/2015/08/05/jfk-terminal-4/#BfcmlTvvzaqr