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There is one official dining App for Columbia students, it can dynamically update menu and users can check if a dining hall is open or not. There is also news related to the schedule of the three dining halls available on this App. It also offers a feedback page where users can send their opinions about the dining halls to Columbia Dining. It is a good App but it left out two important features: the head count monitoring and recommendation function.
First of all, it is inconvenient to cross-check and compare different menus. Lack of crowdedness information for dining halls means students may go to a dining hall full of diners, which means there is no place to sit. On the other hand, it’s inherently difficult to accurately measure or estimate the occupancy of building/room. Traditional approaches, i.e. sensor network, often require relatively large/expensive measurement equipment, and asks for a regular shape space without too much environmental interference. Therefore, monitoring the flow rate and detecting table availability with low-cost devices is meaningful for dining halls. |
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