People Counting Technologies Could Save Businesses Trillions
The need for reliable and accurate people counting technologies for 
businesses is now more critical than ever. In retail, for example, various technological solutions are implemented to ensure that stores’ operations run as smoothly and efficiently as possible. The technology that goes into business operations is vastly versatile and covers every aspect, from security cameras and POS systems to RF and RFID security tags.
With consumer behavior shifting due to the pandemic, retail stores are looking for ways to optimize their conversion rates. To begin the optimization process, businesses need to gain insights into their visitor data to understand shopping behavior – this is where visitor counters come into play.
By utilizing wasted space, businesses could reduce their rental costs by around $1.5 trillion. Smart people counting technologies are available to identify under-occupied areas and make better use of these, while also improving efficiency and the wellbeing of employees. To optimize space, the first step is to understand precisely how an area is used. Counting and tracking people within a building requires robust methods.
However, such smart systems not only inform space optimization, but they can also control temperature settings, adjust lighting or alter other environmental factors to correspond with the room occupancy, which in turn results in lower utility bills. They can also highlight free working spaces for employees. In retail businesses, smart systems can also be used to count customer footfall and to optimize the layout of the store.
Interesting Applications of People Counter
Retail
Understanding foot traffic is very important in retail to organize merchandise in aisles, optimize store layout, understand peak times, and potentially even protect against theft. You can now put a camera in your store and connect it to the Unleash live AI platform and get real-time data that can be ingested and analyzed.
Infrastructure Planning
A lot of businesses or government agencies could use people counter to understand various things like how crowded public places at any are given time or how many people are using a particular street crossing every day etc.
safety
Another broad area of application can be safety. If you are searching for someone who is lost or if a business would like to ensure an area is human-free before starting a big machine. In the image below, my model could track a person who is trekking in the outback.
Beam Counters
Infrared beam counters are horizontal infrared beams located at the entrance of your store. These sensors capture incoming and outgoing footfall. These easy-to-install devices are suitable for any indoor and outdoor location.
Expected Accuracy of Infrared Beam Counter: 60% – 80%
3D STEREOSCOPIC COUNTERS
Our 3d Vision Uses Stereoscopic Vision To Ensure The Highest Level Of Accuracy For People Counting Within Various Environments Such As Heavy Traffic, And Is Not Affected By Environmental Issues.
The fourth generation of people counter combines the technology of the third generation and Wi-Fi counting, allowing users to obtain further business insight than before. Additionally, using stereoscopic vision to detect height, fourth-generation counters can effectively avoid false counting presented by third-generation counters.
Expected Accuracy of 3D People Counter : Above 95%
Wi-Fi / BLUETOOTH COUNTERS
These counters detect the Mac Address of visitors with a Wi-Fi / Bluetooth-enabled device on them. The strength of the 
signal can give an approximate location of each person. We hash the MAC addresses irreversibly and are therefore pseudonymized. We remove the original MAC address of your device from our sensors and systems. Further analysis of this data is done with the pseudonymized data. Note: we do not process personal information.
Expected Accuracy of 3D People Counter: Above 95%
Thermal counters
Thermal imaging systems using array sensors to detect heat sources using embedded technology. It is highly unreliable due to inaccuracies with slight variations in weather, and humidity of its environment.
Thermal counters are ideal for general people traffic counting and are widely used to monitor footfall in retail and leisure industries. For the reason that they are non-intrusive and unaffected by light, heat, or inanimate objects, which can destabilize other technologies. With an accuracy of more than 96%, these devices provide accurate and high-quality data.
Expected Accuracy of Thermal Counter: 65% – 85%
Traffic is the real potential of a store or shopping center. Information about store traffic can help you:
• Analyse customer flows
• Evaluate the impact of promotions
• Improve staff planning
• Determine optimal opening hours
• Optimise employee costs
If you take it one step further, it even allows you to make an assessment of the impact of weather on your customer visits. There is so much you can do with data. Would you like to know more about your options, please get in touch with us!