Real-Time Location Data

What is Real-Time Location Data?

A sub-category of location data, real-time location data is used to automatically identify and track the geo-location of people or objects, but exactly as it happens (real-time). This data can provide an incredibly specific location which means it has many different uses.

How is Real-Time Location Data collected?

There is a wide variety of systems than can be used to collect real-time location data.
Wifi routers and Bluetooth beacon are often used, especially with to track mobile phones and connected devices, to locate people in particular.
Real-time location data can also be collected by radio beacons, infrared and ultrasound among other methods.
The numerous different ways of collecting this data means it can be used for many different jobs.

What are the attributes of Real-Time Location Data?

A real-time location dataset could have many different attributes so make sure you pick the one that is most suited to your names. Common parts of one of these datasets might include:
Basic information - The basic information provided will be longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates, device IDs and timestamps. It may also include IP addresses, country codes and publisher IDs.
POIs - Prepackaged or specific points of interest (POIs) can provide information as to how many people are at these locations at any given time which allows you to tailor your services, such as marketing campigns.
Custom segments - some datasets may also provide custom segments so that you can target an additional location of your choice.

What is Real-Time Location Data used for?

Real-time location data has a whole host of uses.
It could be used to identify objects in a warehouse to allow the streamlining of your delivery packaging process or it might be used to track a shipment while it is en route.
When it comes to the real-time location data of people, there are even more uses. You can use it for food delivery services or taxi services. Often it is used by companies to tailor advertising campaigns to target people who are nearby.

How can a user assess the quality of Real-Time Location Data?

The best real-time location datasets will be, as the name suggests, updated constantly and consistently! This is important because, as with any kind of location and movement data, the individual’s geospatial position will be changing all the time. Having historical location data to enrich your real-time location dataset may also be useful as you can use this to identify trends and patterns in consumer movement. Always make sure to read a data provider’s reviews before buying and ask for a data sample before you purchase to ensure that their data matches your business’ needs. For example, if you’re looking for real-time location data in the US, it’s no good buying from a location data provider who only has data for Europe.