The new thing in Corporate controlled apartments is they have your apartment fully set up with remote telemetry, which also means they have WiFi Hotspots installed in all units. From there, they track things like the hot water tank, water in the sink, heating/cooling, etc..
I can see "PartySquasher" type technology becoming a feature in w/corporate controlled apartments. Mine is particularly intrusive (Park Place, San Mateo) - in that they also have all the doors digitalized as well as the entry into mailroom/complex via Bluetooth authentication. Just to make sure you have to digitally log in to your apartment - they also lock you in 120 seconds after entering, so you can't just leave your door unlocked.
You just know that this is absolutely the future of housing once private equity starts to dominate the corporate landlord space.
Gosh that's just awful. "Hi ghshepard, welcome home! Before we unlock your door for you, please watch this 30 second ad! Oh my, once a day you'll need to fill out a survey - what did you think of the ad?"
"your commons room use is 5 minutes over the limit. you'll need to pay the $200 excess use charge, or you can upgrade to our UNLIMITED commons room plan, which lets you use the commons room for five hours a month"
Even better - and I kid you not - the first notice I had that my door no longer accepted my key was when I came home one night and there was a new digital lock on the door. It was late, and thankfully I was able to find some details in my spam folder that let me get into my apartment that night.
They did the same thing to me a second time with the bluetooth connection to the apartment complex - and were very passive aggressive about let me know how to activate the application. Initially told me I had "a problem with email" if I hadn't properly read their single random-sourced mention of a new app I needed to install on my phone a couple weeks earlier that I had instantly dropped into a spam bucket as obvious phishing.
The nice thing of intrusive sensors that sense things that are not sensed by your usual senses, like this, is that it's easy to saturate them while faking innocence. I.e., set up your laptop so that it does many scans and/or associations to the local WiFi, and then some light internet activity (the usual suspects: WhatsApp, Facebook, etc). The detector triggers, the landlord shows up to check what's going on, you show it's just you and your partner. Do that a few times until the landlord is convinced that the sensor is malfunctioning; unless they are IT technicals themselves, which I guess won't happen often, they will have a hard time understanding what's really going on, even more to prove it.
what's the end goal? To convince the owner that the occupancy counter is malfunctioning for a couple days and then after that throw a big party? Maybe you can just ask if it's okay to host a party before renting..
Whose end goal? The tenant's goal might be, as you say, to convince the landlord that the device is unreliable, and cheat on the rent agreement. If you want to cheat, as I guess some people do (otherwise there wouldn't be need for a monitor), asking if it's ok to host a party isn't a good solution.
My personal end goal is speculation. Each time a technology is discussed it's pretty automatic for me to think about what are its weaknesses and strengths, and how its behavior can be subverted or the same thing can be used in unintended ways.
I could definitely see the use from a landlord's perspective but of course would hate this as a tenant.
My last landlord wanted me to sign a lot of arbitrary (and mostly unenforceable) rules. One was "no guests without permission". I read it over and asked him, "so if I have someone sleep over, you want me to call you on your cell?" He scratched out the rule.
All of my leases have had a variation of that clause, except it usually requires guests get permission if staying longer than X nights within Y time period because the landlord doesn't want the tenant to accidentally allow someone to establish legal tenancy (making it difficult to evict them even if the landlord can convict you).
So what happens if I'm a tech nerd that has so many devices that I bring with me? Laptop, phone, tablet, streaming device, second phone because gotta keep work/life separate, and then spouse's phone, tablet, then 2.5 kids worth of tablets.
Based on device count alone, we're partying like it's 1999.
Same thought. It's unlikely I won't have at least 4 devices just myself. I assumed some sort of thermal sensor would be used here, assuming one device per person is ridiculous.
Neat. I stayed at an Airbnb recently with a microphone based one, which was easy to unplug, and led me to give a 0-star review, because fuck you for putting an internet-enabled microphone in my space. I’d be much more comfortable with this.
I'd be tempted to just start carrying some sort of small speaker that plays very disturbing sounds at a volume the mic would hear, but not enough to bother people in the same room. Basically, the same tape the US military plays to tortur...intensely interrogate enemy combatants.
Pretty sure I saw a couple of party detection devices shown on some netflix airBnb creators show like 8(?) years ago.
(show had a firehouse in DC revamp, then another episode with a california(?) 70's pad with 70s furniture, decor, pool.. definitely the kind of place you may want to party, yet the owners were hesitant to list it if they could not prevent that...
I believe they used a combination of sound dB meters and carbon monoxide detectors to determine approx number of people and how loud they were.
Sounds like this thing is another interesting way to gauge similar activities, which is interesting, but I would shy away from calling it first.
Maybe 'unapproved gathering detection alerts you if too many cell phones are detected on or near your property' - I dunno.
I wonder if it's smart enough to detect if the neighbour is having a party or if people will start to get bogus Airbnb complaints from properties with these devices.
Well, actually, that's untrue. Carbonylhemoglobin formation due to metabolic and environmental CO, and subsequent breakdown releases CO. There are, in fact, CO breath analyzers. Smokers and smoke inhalation patients have much higher levels, whereas ordinary healthy people have detectable, nonzero levels. For the point of detecting crowds, it's still meaningless.
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I can see "PartySquasher" type technology becoming a feature in w/corporate controlled apartments. Mine is particularly intrusive (Park Place, San Mateo) - in that they also have all the doors digitalized as well as the entry into mailroom/complex via Bluetooth authentication. Just to make sure you have to digitally log in to your apartment - they also lock you in 120 seconds after entering, so you can't just leave your door unlocked.
You just know that this is absolutely the future of housing once private equity starts to dominate the corporate landlord space.
They did the same thing to me a second time with the bluetooth connection to the apartment complex - and were very passive aggressive about let me know how to activate the application. Initially told me I had "a problem with email" if I hadn't properly read their single random-sourced mention of a new app I needed to install on my phone a couple weeks earlier that I had instantly dropped into a spam bucket as obvious phishing.
I really hate corporate apartment management.
Very soon the norm will be to keep your phone off at any airbnb party.
My personal end goal is speculation. Each time a technology is discussed it's pretty automatic for me to think about what are its weaknesses and strengths, and how its behavior can be subverted or the same thing can be used in unintended ways.
My last landlord wanted me to sign a lot of arbitrary (and mostly unenforceable) rules. One was "no guests without permission". I read it over and asked him, "so if I have someone sleep over, you want me to call you on your cell?" He scratched out the rule.
Deleted Comment
Based on device count alone, we're partying like it's 1999.
I believe they used a combination of sound dB meters and carbon monoxide detectors to determine approx number of people and how loud they were.
Sounds like this thing is another interesting way to gauge similar activities, which is interesting, but I would shy away from calling it first.
Maybe 'unapproved gathering detection alerts you if too many cell phones are detected on or near your property' - I dunno.
"Party Squasher counts the number of mobile phones in and around your house."
> Carbon dioxide* detectors, people don’t produce carbon monoxide
Wouldn't smokers produce carbon monoxide when they smoked? That might be something they'd be legitimately interested in.