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Wearables and phone tracking sense devices. WiFi CSI senses bodies. The coverage and data models are fundamentally different, and the right choice depends on whether you need per-person metrics or zone-level awareness.

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What gets detected

A guest, child, intruder, or elder who forgot their pendant is invisible to device tracking. CSI detects any body that perturbs the channel.

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Data model

Phone and MAC analytics produce device-level events: “MAC connected,” “beacon seen.” Counting people requires mapping devices to humans. One person with three devices inflates count; five people sharing one laptop undercounts. CSI analytics produce space-level events: “zone occupied,” “motion intensity 0.7.” No device mapping is needed. See occupancy analytics for details.

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Privacy and compliance

MAC addresses and persistent device identifiers can constitute personal data under GDPR. CSI occupancy data, zone-level utilization without identifiers, sits in a different regulatory category: closer to anonymous people-counting beams.

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Maintenance burden

Wearables require charging, pairing, replacement, and compliance (“please wear this”). Per-person operational cost scales with occupancy. CSI nodes are fixed installation with zero per-person maintenance. Operational cost is per-zone, not per-person.

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When to choose which

Wearable: opt-in personal health metrics (heart rate, steps, SpO2), workforce safety with assigned devices, clinical trials with consenting participants. WiFi CSI: space-level occupancy, elder-care ambient monitoring, security, building analytics. Anywhere you need to sense everyone in a zone without asking them to carry anything. See elder-care monitoring and security and intrusion detection.