Each piece of cardio equipment in the gym will be equipped with a monitor that determines if it is occupied or not.

With the exercise area in the gym covering a large area of up to 900 square feet, and the concern for safety with errant wires, there is a need for wireless communication between devices using Bluetooth or WI-FI. A comparison between the two implementations is displayed below.

	Bluetooth	WI-FI
Frequency	2.4 GHz	2.4,3.6, 5 GHz
Cost	Low	High
Security	Less	More
Range	10 meters	32 meters
Power	Lower	Higher
Data-Transfer	25mbps	250mbps

Update Time: System must handle individual updates from all machines within one minute.

Accuracy: With updates being made very frequently, accuracy isn’t as important of an update was lost, but the occupancy-monitoring device must detect occupancy within 90%

FCC Regulations: Communication between all devices must be done within all FCC Regulations.

Power: The occupancy monitors will use standard AC power, as it is the same power supply that the equipment is also plugged into. Another alternative is a long lasting lithium battery but can run into issues on how long and what period of time it will last throughout the day.

Size: The system will be divided into single components that monitor each piece of equipment using a microcontroller resulting in a general size of 5.5×7 centimeters.

Durability: Since the monitors are in a gym, each component will need to withstand low impacts from accidental contact so each component will be placed in a plastic encasing.