Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the TTO of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has introduced a method for tracking, recording, and analyzing human traffic patterns for tourism, town planning, and health care applications. Noam Shoval and Michal Isaacson, researchers in Hebrew-U’s department of geography, developed the technology. Human behavior depends on countless variables, with data on human movement in amusement parks, national parks, and other tourist venues often coming from subjective sources. Costly mistakes in planning such sites usually are detected only after a project is completed and in use. An accurate, objective system that monitors and records actual movement patterns could improve the planning and construction of such sites.<\/p>\n
The Hebrew-U system uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to record the location of people for a desired period of time. During the tracking period, participants carry a small GPS unit. The tracking data is then analyzed, using a proprietary time\/space analysis engine, to derive a map indicating the routes taken by each participant and the length of time spent in each location. The data obtained using tracking technologies can be analyzed in real time, creating virtual “radar” of the activity of visitors throughout a destination. The system was recently assessed in PortAventura theme park in Spain. “Urban tourism is a growing sector with profound effects on the city’s layout and economy,” says Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum. “This tool provides important information that is impossible to gather in traditional ways, such as locating areas that are under-visited by tourists and have unrealized potential and determining the effects of time, weather, and other parameters on tourist mobility and activity.”<\/p>\n
The tracking and analyzing system also has medical applications for detecting the mobility of patients after surgery and measuring their recovery. Patients carry a GPS unit after surgery. Future development will integrate additional sensors that will allow the combination of GPS data with physiological data, such as heart rate and blood pressure. The system has been licensed to Location Based Intelligence, Inc., for further development and commercialization in the medical arena.<\/p>\n