Count the number of people around you ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘ฆ by monitoring wifi signals ๐Ÿ“ก .

Overview

howmanypeoplearearound

Count the number of people around you ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘ฆ by monitoring wifi signals ๐Ÿ“ก .

howmanypeoplearearound calculates the number of people in the vicinity using the approximate number of smartphones as a proxy (since ~70% of people have smartphones nowadays). A cellphone is determined to be in proximity to the computer based on sniffing WiFi probe requests. Possible uses of howmanypeoplearearound include: monitoring foot traffic in your house with Raspberry Pis, seeing if your roommates are home, etc.

Tested on Linux (Raspbian and Ubuntu) and Mac OS X.

It may be illegal to monitor networks for MAC addresses, especially on networks that you do not own. Please check your country's laws (for US Section 18 U.S. Code ยง 2511) - discussion.

Getting started

For a video walkthrough on how to install, checkout PNPtutorials.

Dependencies

Python 2.7 or preferably Python 3 must be installed on your machine with the pip command also available.

  python -V
  pip -V

WiFi adapter that supports monitor mode

There are a number of possible USB WiFi adapters that support monitor mode. Here's a list that are popular:

Namely you want to find a USB adapter with one of the following chipsets: Atheros AR9271, Ralink RT3070, Ralink RT3572, or Ralink RT5572.

Mac OS X

  brew install wireshark
  brew cask install wireshark-chmodbpf

You need to dissociate from any AP before initiating the scanning:

sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -z

Linux tshark

sudo apt-get install tshark

Then update it so it can be run as non-root:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure wireshark-common     (select YES)
sudo usermod -a -G wireshark ${USER:-root}
newgrp wireshark

Install

pip install howmanypeoplearearound

Run

Quickstart

To run, simply type in

$ howmanypeoplearearound
Using wlan1 adapter and scanning for 60 seconds...
[==================================================] 100%        0s left
There are about 3 people around.

You will be prompted for the WiFi adapter to use for scanning. Make sure to use an adapter that supports "monitor" mode.

Docker alternative

If Docker is installed locally and you want to take howmanypeoplearearound out for a quick spin, you can try the following:

  1. Copy Dockerfile from this repo in your current working directory
  2. docker build -t howmanypeoplearearound . # that . at the end is important
  3. docker run -it --net=host --name howmanypeoplearearound howmanypeoplearearound

NOTE: This Docker alternative is known to work on Ubuntu but not on Mac OS X. Feedback on other platforms would be appreciated.

Options

You can modify the scan time, designate the adapter, or modify the output using some command-line options.

$ howmanypeoplearearound --help

Options:
  -a, --adapter TEXT   adapter to use
  -z, --analyze TEXT   analyze file
  -s, --scantime TEXT  time in seconds to scan
  -o, --out TEXT       output cellphone data to file
  -v, --verbose        verbose mode
  --number             just print the number
  -j, --jsonprint      print JSON of cellphone data
  -n, --nearby         only quantify signals that are nearby (rssi > -70)
  --nocorrection       do not apply correction
  --loop               loop forever
  --sort               sort cellphone data by distance (rssi)

Print JSON

You can generate an JSON-formatted output to see what kind of phones are around:

$ howmanypeoplearearound -o test.json -a wlan1
[==================================================] 100%         0s left
There are about 4 people around.
$ cat test.json | python3 -m json.tool
[
  {
    "rssi": -86.0,
    "mac": "90:e7:c4:xx:xx:xx",
    "company": "HTC Corporation"
  },
  {
    "rssi": -84.0,
    "mac": "80:e6:50:xx:xx:xx",
    "company": "Apple, Inc."
  },
  {
    "rssi": -49.0,
    "mac": "ac:37:43:xx:xx:xx",
    "company": "HTC Corporation"
  }
]

A higher rssi means closer (one of these phones is mine, and the other two are my roommates' who were upstairs).

Run forever

You can add --loop to make this run forever and append new lines an output file, test.json:

$ howmanypeoplearearound -o test.json -a wlan1 --loop

Visualize

You can visualize the output from a looped command via a browser using:

$ howmanypeoplearearound --analyze test.json 
Wrote index.html
Open browser to http://localhost:8001
Type Ctl+C to exit

Then just open up index.html in a browser and you should see plots. The first plot shows the number of people over time. Here you can see that people start arriving at work place around 8-9am (when work starts!).

newplot

The second plot shows the RSSI values for the mac addresses seen. You can double-click on one of them in particular to highlight that trajectory, as I have done here for my phone (you can see when I leave from and when I arrive to work!):

newplot 1

How does it work?

howmanypeoplearearound counts up the number of probe requests coming from cellphones in a given amount of time. The probe requests can be "sniffed" from a monitor-mode enabled WiFi adapter using tshark. An accurate count does depend on everyone having cellphone and also scanning long enough (1 - 10 minutes) to capture the packet when a phone pings the WiFi network (which happens every 1 to 10 minutes unless the phone is off or WiFi is disabled).

This is a simplification of another program I wrote, find-lf which uses a similar idea with a cluster of Raspberry Pis to geolocate positions of cellphones within the vicinity.

License

MIT

Comments
  • What is legality of monitoring traffic for mac addresses

    What is legality of monitoring traffic for mac addresses

    Hey, nice job on this :) I just wanted to mention that in case you are not aware, it is against the law to sniff packets. The only exception is to sniff on your own network, and only to protect it.

    It is unfortunate, otherwise it would be really nice to come up with ways to use it!

    At least you should put a "big fat" warning that the use of sniffing is most likely be illegal.

    question 
    opened by kootenpv 22
  • Create Dockerfile

    Create Dockerfile

    Trying to fix https://github.com/schollz/howmanypeoplearearound/issues/6 This does the full build but does not provide any data packets on my Mac but maybe others will have more luck on more promiscuous OSes.

    To use:

    • $ docker build -t howmanypeoplearearound .
    • $ docker run -it --rm --name howmanypeoplearearound howmanypeoplearearound
    opened by cclauss 4
  • Will it detect only certain cellphones

    Will it detect only certain cellphones

    Help needed- Does its detect only phones listed in the code? It detects wonderfully my HTC phone, but not OnePlus, MI or Xiomi phone.

    Issue - The count of cellphones takes into account rssi~0 also, which seems to be incorrect output.

    opened by AshayAgrawal 4
  • Added CLI option to specify the pcap flie

    Added CLI option to specify the pcap flie

    This can be helpful on MacOS where you can capture on the interface while still attached to the wifi (using the Wireless Diagnostic tool) or in general when you already have a pcap file.

    opened by asutoshpalai 3
  • Video Tutorials

    Video Tutorials

    It's basically self explanatory but still there are very less video explainations,kindly add some video Tutorials as there are many noobs and this project is very cool

    help wanted hacktoberfest 
    opened by AlistairXX 3
  • Most Basic Hardware Implementation

    Most Basic Hardware Implementation

    What is the simplest standalone hardware setup you would recommend for this?

    What service would you run to be able to access the graphed results on another device's web browser?

    opened by adamsiem 3
  • Use newgrp to avoid log out and log back in

    Use newgrp to avoid log out and log back in

    https://ask.wireshark.org/questions/7976/wireshark-setup-linux-for-nonroot-user This approach is used in the Dockerfile

    Also verify that Python and pip are installed.

    opened by cclauss 3
  • No such command (analyze, loop, etc)

    No such command (analyze, loop, etc)

    When I try to use analyze or loop as per the instructions, it says no such command. Some of the other ones work, and when I pull up the help info, it only lists these:

    
      -a, --adapter TEXT   adapter to use
      -s, --scantime TEXT  time in seconds to scan
      -o, --out TEXT       output cellphone data to file
      -v, --verbose        verbose mode
      --number             just print the number
      -j, --jsonprint      print JSON of cellphone data
      -n, --nearby         only quantify signals that are nearby (rssi > -70)
      --nocorrection       do not apply correction
      --help               Show this message and exit.
    
    

    Any ideas?

    opened by hunsbct 2
  • Is rssi calculation correct?

    Is rssi calculation correct?

    https://github.com/schollz/howmanypeoplearearound/blob/master/howmanypeoplearearound/main.py#L159-L161 Is this correct? It probably is correct, and my knowledge is weak. :-(

    opened by cclauss 2
  • ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_curses'

    ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_curses'

    I am using python 3 on windows, run command in command line like this: pip install howmanypeoplearearound and finally it shows: Successfully installed howmanypeoplearearound-0.3.1 netifaces-0.10.5 pick-0.6.3 However, when run command: howmanypeoplearearound failed: Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Users\win10\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Scripts\howmanypeoplearearound-script.py", line 11, in <module> load_entry_point('howmanypeoplearearound==0.3.1', 'console_scripts', 'howmanypeoplearearound')() File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 560, in load_entry_point return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name) File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 2648, in load_entry_point return ep.load() File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 2302, in load return self.resolve() File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 2308, in resolve module = __import__(self.module_name, fromlist=['__name__'], level=0) File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\howmanypeoplearearound\__main__.py", line 11, in <module> from pick import pick File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pick\__init__.py", line 3, in <module> import curses File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\curses\__init__.py", line 13, in <module> from _curses import * ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_curses' PS C:\Users\win10> howmanypeoplearearound Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\Users\win10\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Scripts\howmanypeoplearearound-script.py", line 11, in <module> load_entry_point('howmanypeoplearearound==0.3.1', 'console_scripts', 'howmanypeoplearearound')() File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 560, in load_entry_point return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name) File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 2648, in load_entry_point return ep.load() File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 2302, in load return self.resolve() File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pkg_resources\__init__.py", line 2308, in resolve module = __import__(self.module_name, fromlist=['__name__'], level=0) File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\howmanypeoplearearound\__main__.py", line 11, in <module> from pick import pick File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\site-packages\pick\__init__.py", line 3, in <module> import curses File "c:\users\win10\appdata\local\programs\python\python36-32\lib\curses\__init__.py", line 13, in <module> from _curses import * ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_curses'

    What's the problem?

    opened by MrAnderson2Neo 2
  • Multiple MAC addresses for a single rssi in dumped JSON

    Multiple MAC addresses for a single rssi in dumped JSON

    For one timepoint my dumped JSON file contains the following (redacted), with two MAC addresses separated by a comma, where there is usually a single MAC address:

    {"rssi": -77.0, "company": "Apple, Inc.", "mac": "48:43:7c:XX:XX:XX,23:eb:f7:XX:XX:XX"}
    

    This causes a syntax issue in the Javascript generated for analysis that looks like the following, causing the analysis to not display:

    var mac48437cXXXXXX,23ebf7XXXXXX = {
      x: timex,
      y: [rssi-numbers-omitted],
     name: '48:43:7c:XX:XX:XX,23:eb:f7:XX:XX:XX', mode: 'lines', type:'scatter' };
    

    Not sure how to replicate it, as I don't have a raw Wireshark dump file matching it. There seems to be the implicit assumption that wireshark will never emit two mac addresses in a single line like that, which should probably be improved on by either dropping the line or splitting the mac address field and duplicating the result. However, given I am not sure why it occurred, I am not sure what the best course of action should be.

    opened by ansell 2
  • Add another method based on BTLE and contact tracing

    Add another method based on BTLE and contact tracing

    We can also exploit the contact tracing being added to iOS and Android to answer the question "how many people are around?". Cell phones are transmitting ephemeral IDs with BTLE and we can sniff that with tshark. I have described the method here:

    https://xakcop.com/post/how-many-people/

    If you think this fits into the project, I can start working on a PR :)

    opened by rgerganov 0
  • Am I missing any step?

    Am I missing any step?

    Hi @schollz , first things first, thanks for making such a cool project.

    I was trying to use this on my mac osx. And here's what I did.

    1. Connected to wifi
    2. Ran
    $ brew install wireshark
    $ brew cask install wireshark-chmodbpf
    $ sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -z
    
    1. Installed the pip package, and ran howmanypeoplearearound

    I see a very big list of options

    image

    I'm not sure which one is my wifi adapter that supports monitor mode. Is there any way to figure that out?

    Also, I tried to bruteforce and give it a shot with all the option but everytime the response after scanning is Found no signals, are you sure en0 supports monitor mode?

    Can you please help if I'm missing any step?

    opened by satwikkansal 3
  •  Add tshark capture filter for probe-req

    Add tshark capture filter for probe-req

    This change adds a capture filter so that tshark only captures probe requests, ignoring all the other traffic that comes up when a wireless interface is listening in monitor mode.

    It uses the following pcap capture filter: "type mgt subtype probe-req" pcap-filter docs: https://www.tcpdump.org/manpages/pcap-filter.7.html

    By using a pcap filter, there is less information in the temporary pcap file to parse. Hopefully this slightly optimizes the code.

    PS. This is my first pull request! I hope it is helpful, but my sincerest apologies if this is irrelevant or unhelpful. Thanks again for sharing this project and your awesome documentation!

    opened by spencerstewart 0
Releases(v0.5.0)
Owner
Zack
Tinkerer
Zack
Programmable Rainbow Redstone Computer

Programmable Rainbow Redstone Computer Table of contents What is it? Program flasher How to use it What is it? PRRC is Programmable Rainbow Redstone C

Fern H 2 Jun 07, 2022
Automatic CPU speed & power optimizer for Linux

Automatic CPU speed & power optimizer for Linux based on active monitoring of laptop's battery state, CPU usage, CPU temperature and system load. Ultimately allowing you to improve battery life witho

Adnan Hodzic 3.4k Jan 07, 2023
Windhager myComfort custom component for Home Assistant

Windhager myComfort custom component for Home Assistant

5 Apr 27, 2022
Monitor an EnvisaLink alarm module running Honeywell firmware, and set a Nest device to Home/Away depending on whether the alarm is Disarmed/Away.

Nestalarm Monitor an EnvisaLink alarm module running Honeywell firmware, and set a Nest device to Home/Away depending on whether the alarm is Disarmed

1 Dec 30, 2021
Python implementation of ZMP Preview Control approach for biped robot control.

ZMP Preview Control This is the Python implementation of ZMP Preview Control app

Chaobin 24 Dec 19, 2022
Python information display framework aimed at e-ink devices

My display, using a Raspberry Pi Zero W and Waveshare 6" e-paper hat infodisplay Modular information display framework aimed at e-ink devices. Built u

Niek Blankers 3 Apr 08, 2022
This Home Assistant custom component adding support for controlling Midea dehumidifiers on local network.

This custom component for Home assistant adds support for Midea dehumidifier appliances via the local area network. homeassistant-midea-dehumidifier-l

Nenad Bogojevic 91 Dec 28, 2022
Christmasvillage-rpi - Raspberry Pi relay controller for ChristmasVillage.io

ChristmasVillage.io Relay Controller Links ChristmasVillage.io - Live Stream & Controls Youtube Instagram About This repository controls the light rel

Grant Windes 2 Feb 15, 2022
Home Assistant custom integration to fetch data from Powerpal

Powerpal custom component for Home Assistant Component to integrate with powerpal. This repository and integration is not affiliated with Powerpal. Th

Lawrence 32 Jan 07, 2023
Simple Python script to decode and verify an European Health Certificate QR-code

A simple Python script to decode and verify an European Health Certificate QR-code.

Mathias Panzenbรถck 61 Oct 05, 2022
Volkswagen ID component for Home Assistant

Volkswagen ID component for Home Assistant This folder contains both a generic Python 3 library for the Volkswagen ID API and a component for Home Ass

55 Jan 07, 2023
Implementation of Forwards Kinematics, Inverse Kinematics, Point to Point Movement and Synchronous movement for Kuka KR 120 R2700-2.

I made this project for my university course in robotics. I rarely found any information regarding the implementation of mathematics in code. So I decided to make this repo in order to help others :)

2 Dec 27, 2022
a weather application for the raspberry pi and the Pimorioni Inky pHAT.

raspi-weather a weather application for the raspberry pi and the Inky pHAT

Derek Caelin 59 Oct 24, 2022
Code reimplementation of some papers published in SAIL-Lab

SAIL SAIL-Lab็ปŸไธ€ไปฃ็ ๅบ“ Motivation ๅˆ›ๅปบ่ฟ™ไธช้กน็›ฎ็š„ๅŠจๆœบๆœ€ๆ—ฉๆฅๆบไบŽๅฎž้ชŒๅฎค็ป„ๅ†…ๆˆๅ‘˜็›ธไบ’Debugไปฃ็ ็š„ๆ—ถๅ€™้‡ๅˆฐ็š„้บป็ƒฆใ€‚

Jianwen Chen 8 Nov 15, 2022
My 500 LED xmas tree

xmastree2020 This repository contains the code used for Matt's Christmas tree, as featured in "I wired my tree with 500 LED lights and calculated thei

Stand-up Maths 581 Jan 07, 2023
A PYTHON Library for Controlling Motors using SOLO Motor Controllers with RASPBERRY PI, Linux, windows, and more!

A PYTHON Library for Controlling Motors using SOLO Motor Controllers with RASPBERRY PI, Linux, windows, and more!

SOLO Motor Controllers 3 Apr 29, 2022
Minimal and clean dashboard to visualize some stats of Pi-Hole with an E-Ink display attached to your Raspberry Pi

Clean Dashboard for Pi-Hole Minimal and clean dashboard to visualize some stats of Pi-Hole with an E-Ink display attached to your Raspberry Pi.

Alessio Santoru 104 Dec 14, 2022
๐ŸŽƒ Some spooky code samples to hack yourself a pumpkin ๐Ÿ‘ป

๐ŸŽƒ Tech Or Treat ๐Ÿ‘ป It's spooky season for those who celebrate Halloween, and to get in the spirit (spirit - get it? ๐Ÿ‘ป ) we thought it would be fun t

Jim Bennett 5 Feb 07, 2022
Micropython-wifimanager-esp8266 - Simple Wifi Manager for ESP8266 using MicroPython

micropython-wifimanager-esp8266 Simple Wifi Manager for ESP8266 using MicroPytho

Abhinuv Nitin Pitale 1 Jan 04, 2022
New armachat based on Raspberry Pi PICO an Circuitpython code

Armachat-circuitpython New Armachat based on Raspberry Pi PICO an Circuitpython code Software working features: send message with header and store to

Peter Misenko 44 Dec 24, 2022