Wellness data

Michelle, good question! It depends on how big the space is that you're trying to measure and how many entrances and exits it has. I was helping to work on this type of effort before moving to the construction side of the business. We were often hitting a wall with the idea of using any kind of video feed for privacy reasons. But, there are options where you could use video without capturing faces if you could convince a client to let you do it. The cheapest option we found was to take a Raspberry Pi - a small single-board computer - and outfit it with a motion sensor which was placed above a door into a room. You could probably make this for around $60. This works well for conference rooms or similar scenarios with one door in and out, but gets more complicated and less reliable in bigger spaces. Also, using this method, you can only count the number of times someone passes through the door. You don't necessarily know how long they were in there, or if someone came in and walked right back out, or if it was two people entering at the same time. You're just getting 1's and 0's. But, it can be better than nothing for a cheap solution of space monitoring without any of the privacy concerns. Maybe Roderick at KT can chime in - I know they've done lots of research in space monitoring in the past. I also just did a quick google search, you could probably get some relatively inexpensive smart devices to see how frequently certain appliances are being used in a teaching kitchen. Paired with some of those motion sensors that could probably build a decent portrait of space utilization. Just some ideas to get you moving! Hope it helps Steven Burke. LEED & WELL Faculty Director Of Sustainability m: 774.462.2044 consigli.com

Michelle, I've seen a few different options for tracking use of spaces for wellness purposes.  The UW Integrated Design Lab did a study tracking stair usage at the Bullitt Center using off the shelf motion sensors.  As I understand it, these were basic systems that monitored occupancy by how often a laser was tripped at the stair entry and exits, similar to what Steven posted with the Raspberry Pi.  These are easy to use and don't have to be custom built, but they sometimes miss people if multiple individuals enter and exit at the same time.  Here at LMN, we are doing an ongoing study of occupant comfort using a homebuilt sensor platform called the PODDs (https://lmnarchitects.com/project-lmn/post-occupancy-data-devices-podds).  These aren't developed to track occupancy numbers, but the data they collect can help determine room usage by looking at trends.  In combination with the trip sensors, you might be able to get a more robust understanding of how the spaces are operating. Finally, I have a friend who's working on building a similar sensor suite for a LBC project.  He runs an electrical engineering startup that specializes in building custom built sensor packages for studies like this.  I'd happy to put you in contact with any of the individuals involved above.   Justin Schwartzhoff LMN 801 Second Avenue, Suite 501 Seattle, WA 98104 T 206 682 3460 C 678 575 2051 lmnarchitects.com

Not as exciting as programming your own R-Pi but we've all seen those 'good or bad' push button systems in convention center restrooms and whatnot. I wonder if something like that could be harnessed to give the same kind of survey feedback that WELL relies on in a quick and easy way. People do love to push buttons, after all... at least they did pre-covid. People also love giving opinions - mostly - which I think will be true even post-covid. 
https://www.happy-or-not.com/en/, https://smileyanswers.com/, https://roidu.com/, etc.