EXPERTS IN PEOPLE COUNTERS
People counters come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and flavours. From break beams, infrared, thermal, and video all can capture people's movement.
People counters come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and flavours. From break beams, infrared, thermal, and video all can capture people's movement.
People counters have been used for centuries to track the number of people entering and exiting a building or area. The earliest known use of a people counter was in the late 1700s, when a French inventor named Jacques de Vaucanson created a mechanical counter that could count up to 999 people. The device was used in the Louvre museum in Paris to keep track of the number of visitors.
In the late 1800s, mechanical people counters were used in stores and factories to track the number of customers and workers. In the early 1900s, people counters were used in theaters to track ticket sales.
In the early 1900s, the first electronic people counters were developed and used in stores to track customer traffic. These counters used infrared beams to detect people passing through a doorway. Since then, people counters have become increasingly sophisticated, with the development of infrared, thermal, and video-based counters. Today, people counters are used in a variety of settings, including retail stores, airports, museums, and public transportation to help businesses better understand customer behavior and optimize operations.
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StoreTech is hardware agnostic, which allows us to try and test the best people counters on the market and recommend the right type of people counter for your environment. We can even make use of people counters you may already have, for a cost-effective upgrade to your current system linked to our powerful performance management cloud portal.
People counters have evolved over the decades like most electronics. Becoming more accurate, robust and reliable. Likewise the cost has also come down as the technologies become more widespread.
The earliest people counters were the manual clickers. Still used today in some instances. This requires someone standing close by to literally count everyone that passes by. As you can imagine, this is quite labour intensive, requiring the person with the clicker to not get distracted. Accuracy will vary greatly as human error will play a big part.
StoreTech started in 1998 and was one of the first companies to count people in retail environments using break-beam technology before moving to more sophisticated infrared and thermal sensors. We understood the benefit of knowing how many people were entering your store could provide invaluable insight and allow the store to objectively measure and optimise performance.
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With so many different people counters in the market from various manufacturers, where do you start? Let us help...
This battery-powered counter comes in two parts, the transmitter which is constantly emitting an invisible infrared beam, and a receiver. Each is positioned on either side of a single door. When the beam is broken by someone walking through the beam, a count is registered.
2D mono counters as the name suggests have a single camera lens. The people counter is installed on the ceiling above a door. Due to poor vision depth, the device can struggle in low or very bright sunlight, where there are shadows, and where there is high footfall.
3D sensors from the likes of Flir and Xovis provide a high resolution and processor of three-dimensional objects. Suitable for high-traffic areas and customer engagement. Devices are powered over Ethernet. Sensors can be daisy-chained together for wide entrances.
Irisys developed the early thermal sensors for people counting. They detect the temperature difference between the environment and an individual walking underneath the field of view. Ceiling mounted they can be linked together for wide entrances and can operate in total darkness.
Irisys lead's the industry with high-end ToF people counters. Ceiling mounted, they work in a similar way to a laser tape measure. GDPR compliant, as no video imaging is used to detect a person's movement. Accuracy can be >99% and therefore ideal for occupancy detection.
Mounted above the entrance, the device works by using infrared light to count people as they move across the field of view. Thermal and infrared people counters do not use any personally identifiable information during their processing.
Mounted above the entrance, the device works by using infrared light to count people as they move across the field of view. Thermal and infrared people counters do not use any personally identifiable information during their processing.
Mounted above the entrance, the device works by using infrared light to count people as they move across the field of view. Thermal and infrared people counters do not use any personally identifiable information during their processing.
Using Wireless Access Points from companies like Meraki and Cisco it's possible to monitor the number of 'devices' a person has with Wi-Fi turned on. Some smartphone manufacturers randomize a phone's MAC address and therefore a device may be picked up more than once.
This 4G mains powered sensor is ceiling mounted and gathers anonymous, non-personal radio frequency signals emitted by shoppers' personal devices. Using AI the data provides walk-by insight, and using trilateration can provide the full customer journey including dwell time.
As you can see there are trade-offs in cost, accuracy, and range depending on the type of people counter you select for your business.
With 25 years of experience in the people counting sector, we've tested many of them.
If you would like a no-obligation chat about our experience and what we would recommend for your environment. You can trust us to only put our name against tried and tested people counters.
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More on people counters
Real-time locating systems (RTLS) are used to automatically identify and track the location of objects or people in real-time, usually within a building or other contained area.
Powerful people counting insight, so you can make the most relevant business decisions.
Opportunity
What time of day should I expect the most footfall?
Effective resources
When is the best time to plan staff breaks?
Staff to demand
Does my site have the right number of contracted hours?
Performance focus
What affect does a promotion have on traffic?
Smart planning
Is my site affected by the manager's day off?
Productivity
Do we carry out tasks at the right times of day?
People counters can be very accurate, depending on the type of technology used. Some people counters use infrared sensors to detect movement and count people as they enter or exit a space. These sensors can be very accurate, with some models being able to detect people up to 98% of the time. Other people counters use video analytics to detect and count people. These systems can also be very accurate, with some models being able to detect and count people up to 95% of the time.
Using the latest time of flight infrared sensors, customers and visitors are counted accurately and anonymously from an overhead sensor. These latest IoT devices are highly accurate at up to 99% in real world conditions and offer complete privacy by being infrared.
For more information please see: Irisys people counters
You may see them called people counter, footfall sensor, door counter, or traffic counter. They all deliver the same basic principle of people tracking using video, thermal, and time of flight technologies. Accuracy levels can vary and therefore we'd recommend carefully selecting a people counter that is reliable and consistent. In terms of accuracy, you do want a people counter that you can believe in the data, knowing that in most cases you will be using it for statistical analysis, meaning it should be suitable for providing patterns and trends on your customer or visitor flow in and out of your space.
People counters or footfall counters are sensor technologies that capture the movement of people within the field of view. Technologies include break-beam, infrared, video, and time of flight, each becoming more accurate than the previous. In recent years, sensors have been shown to achieve over 95% accuracy and are now used to provide occupancy data insight in retail and office workspace environments. If you are unsure as to what technology is right for you, or perhaps you are looking to upgrade your old people counters.
Find out more as we've helped many to businesses to do the same.
A people counter is a device that is used to count the number of people entering or exiting a given area. It is typically used in retail stores, airports, and other public places to measure foot traffic. People counters are typically used to measure customer flow, analyze customer behavior, and optimize staffing levels.
People counting insight from the experts
We tackle some of the myths about Time of Flight People Counting to help you better understand the truth about it.
People-counting systems are tools used to measure and monitor the number of people entering or exiting a building or public space.
Foot traffic data can be a valuable resource for any business that has people moving around your space.
Request a no-obligation demo to talk through your requirements and allow us to share our 25 years of experience and knowledge of people counting and retail performance management solutions.
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