RFID for tracking visitors

[Stéfane Fermigier]

Hi,

I've noticed that you seem to be using RFID chips to track visitor attendance at your events (https://github.com/hasgeek/contactpoint).

As one of the organizers of an open source event in Paris ( http://www.openworldforum.org/ ), I'm interested in exploring such a possibility.

We need tools to automate (somehow) the process of people checking in at the entrance, but also would like to track the attendance of the attendees to the various tracks.

We have a couple of solution providers that propose solutions based on barcodes or QR code (+ iphones or ipads to scan them) but I'm willing to explore other options.

What's your experience using RFID ? I personally have no experience at all with this technology. 

Regards,

  S.

[Kiran Jonnalagadda]

Stefane, my apologies for not responding earlier.

We use NFC for attendee badges, for three uses:

1. Attendees tap on the way in on all days, so we have a daily headcount (and not just the first day).

2. Attendees tap at a sponsor's booth to share contact information. We do not provide sponsors contact information ourselves.

3. Attendees tap at a ContactExchange booth to exchange contact info with each other.

All three use cases are possible because NFC has a very low range: the cards have to be within 5cm of the reader to be detected. This makes tapping a very explicit action by the user.

NFC (or even QR codes) won't help if there is no clear incentive for the attendee to perform this action. Attendees are unlikely to explicitly mark their presence in a track.

You should instead use WiFi for that. If the event has WiFi routers distributed across the venue, keep a count of devices per router through the day. WiFi stats will be skewed by users carrying multiple devices or users who don't bother to connect, but it's a more accurate representation of their distribution around the venue.

Kiran

--
Kiran Jonnalagadda
+91-99452-35123
http://hasgeek.com/

(Sent from my phone)

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