Businesses across a wide range of industries are looking for new ways to feed accurate data to Business Intelligence (BI) applications. In retail, this means having access to Big Data that provides metrics on customer flow, dwell time at various locations in stores and malls, and if there are enough employees in key areas to service customers. Other industries such as hospitality, airports, and trade shows seek similar information about their visitors, where they queue, how best to provide information, and if the right staff and services are at the right place at the right time.

As building automation, smart city, and intelligent facility initiatives expand, wireless technologies provide one of the key layers in the overall solution stack. Given that most of the general population carries some type of wireless device, such as a smartphones or tablet, the fundamental edge point of data collection already exists–802.11 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Add to this layer smart badges, shelf, ceiling and merchandise sensors, and now a way exists for businesses to see more and do more using wireless beaconing and packet sniffer solutions.

A Wi-Fi sniffer is a device that passively listens and records information exchanged in a targeted Wi-Fi channel, allowing applications to monitor visitor flow, dwell time, and queue time. Intelligraphics provides a mobile Wi-Fi device driver for TI WiLink™ and select Qualcomm® chipsets that enables customers to create a solution stack for truly portable, mobile wireless sniffer. It features a single Wi-Fi driver that can either act as a Wi-Fi sniffer, or as a regular Wi-Fi driver.