Presence detection based on crowd surfing signal strength

A merchant device comprising:

• a wireless receiver;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• generate signal strength data that includes at least one signal strength value associated with unique identifiers of wireless signals, the wireless signals received at the wireless receiver from consumer devices in communicable range of the merchant device;
• store the signal strength data in a data storage device;
• access the signal strength data from the data storage device;
• analyze the signal strength data to determine how many of the consumer devices achieved various signal strength levels;
• determine a threshold signal strength value based, at least in part, on the analyzing of how many of the consumer devices achieved the various signal strength levels;
• determine a consumer device is present within a physical area when a subsequent wireless signal from a subsequent consumer device is greater than the threshold signal strength value;
• and
• determine the subsequent consumer device is outside the physical area when the subsequent wireless signal from the subsequent consumer device is less than the threshold signal strength value.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and computer program instructions stored therein, the computer program instructions comprising program instructions executable by a processor and configured to:

• receive, by a merchant device, wireless signals from consumer devices that are in communicable range of the merchant device, wherein the wireless signals each include a unique identifier associated with one of the consumer devices;
• generate signal strength data that includes at least one signal strength value associated with the unique identifier of each of the wireless signals;
• store the signal strength data in a data storage device;
• access the signal strength data from the data storage device;
• analyze the signal strength data to determine how many of the consumer devices achieved various signal strength levels;
• determine a threshold signal strength value based, at least in part, on the analyzing of how many of the consumer devices achieved the various signal strength levels;
• determine a consumer device is present within a physical area when a subsequent wireless signal from a subsequent consumer device is greater than the threshold signal strength value;
• and
• determine the subsequent consumer device is outside the physical area when the subsequent wireless signal from the subsequent consumer device is less than the threshold signal strength value.