You might have seen these white boxes plugged in around the library!
The occupancy information is only available to library staff involved in UX and space planning but the live occupancy information related to public space can be viewed to assess wait times as they plan their visits to libraries.
Occuspace is the creator of the occupancy monitoring sensors that OSULP is now using to help with space utilization. These sensors provide real-time occupancy of spaces by zone or floor. We do not have them in the whole library but are using in strategic locations to help understand and visually see how occupied the building spaces are and dwell time.
Occuspace employs different technologies to gather measurement data about people in spaces. One approach is intended for wide area space measurement and is based on the presence of consumer devices (smartphones, laptops, tablets, audio headphones, etc.) that people carry with them. Occuspace Macro sensors passively detect Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and WiFi signal activity in the surrounding area. The sensors detect the presence of laptops, cell phones, wearables, and other connected devices and send summary information about these signals to Occuspace's cloud. Occuspace does not actually connect to any of these devices, and no personally identifiable information (PII) is ever collected during this process ensuring a high level of privacy for consumers.
The other approach employed by Occuspace is intended for smaller spaces and involves actively scanning the surrounding area with mmWave based sensors. Occuspace Micro sensors use mmWaves to scan smaller spaces and determine the occupancy from the waves that bounce back from people and objects in the vicinity.
All Occuspace sensors are able to determine occupancy of the space with a high degree of fidelity and do not record any personally identifiable information.
Occuspace is fully compliant with all global digital privacy laws and regulations. This includes GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, VCDPA, ColoPA, and COPPA. Read more about privacy:
- This company actually was started by students at UC San Diego! Learn more.
- More about Occuspace on: YouTube or news on their blog.
- We have sensors currently on 2nd, part of 3rd, part of 6th, Java 2 and some classrooms of The Valley Library.
- Fall 2025 - piloting new conference room sensors in our new children's collections area
