White Paper
The health emergency has pushed innovation in the people counting business to the next level.
By taking a fresh approach to the "occupancy problem", we can offer:
Limiting the number of people in a space with equipment designed to gauge flows, as opposed to occupancy, poses special challenges, since no counting technology can claim to be 100% accurate. Errors accumulate over time and are magnified when ins and outs are netted to calculate how many are present. The figure becomes meaningless over time, and absurd if it goes negative.
The industry’s reflex is to promote the high end, low error technologies, but it’s expensive and doesn’t fix the problem: it just reduces it. Enter/wait signalling is usually tablet-based, but these too are pricey, and vulnerable to damage and theft.
We have combined a range of technologies and a practical approach to produce reasonably priced, workable solutions.
Firstly, even the most primitive "beam breakers" are nearly 100% accurate if people enter and exit one at a time. This can be achieved with appropriate signage and signalling, especially now that social distancing is important. (Overhead counters can be used if required.)
Real time red/green lights replace tablets to provide an affordable and stylish signals, and regular zeroing of the occupancy - key to eliminating the build up of errors - is achieved with discrete motion sensors.
With all of the components networked via wifi, coordination is real time with either a low cost local controller, or in the cloud. The data can be streamed into the building management dashboard, with staff smartphones receiving updates and alerts.
A typical deployment would be public toilets in a travel hub such as an airport. Peak surges are restrained by the door signals, the system resets to zero when the bathroom is empty, and staff are alerted for cleaning duty and refreshing supplies of consumables.