Okay, here’s my blog post about setting up people-counting sensors, written in a casual, personal-experience style:
So, I’ve been messing around with this project to track how many people are walking through certain areas, like shopping streets and plazas. It’s been a bit of a learning curve, but I wanted to share what I’ve done so far.
Getting Started
First, I needed to figure out what kind of sensors to use. There are a bunch of options, like those infrared beam breakers, thermal cameras, and even video-based systems. I went with some simple infrared sensors. Those seemed like the easiest to get my hands on and get started with.
The Setup Process
Mounting the sensors was the first real step. I picked a couple of spots, one at the entrance of a small pedestrian street, I wanted to make sure they were lined up right so people would actually break the beam when they walked by. I spent a good hour just fiddling with them, making sure they are secure.
Connecting Everything
Next was getting the sensors to talk to something that could actually count. I grabbed a tiny computer. I had one laying around from an old project.
- I loaded it with a simple Python script.
- The Script to read the sensor data.
- Whenever the sensor’s beam is broken (meaning someone walked by), it would increment a counter.
Making Sense of the Data
Of course, just counting isn’t super useful on its own. I wanted to see the numbers over time, So, I set up a little database to store the counts every hour. I threw together is a simple graph to show the trends. It’s pretty cool to see the peaks and dips throughout the day.
What I Learned (So Far!)
This whole thing is very much a work in progress, but I’ve already picked up a few things:
- Placement is key: Even a slight misalignment of the sensors can really mess up the counts.
- Weather matters:I noticed the counts were off,and realize, oh yeah, heavy rain might be messing with the infrared.
- Data is addictive: Once you start seeing the patterns, you just want to collect more and more data!
I’m still figuring out the best way to visualize the data, and I’m thinking about adding some kind of alert system to notify me if there’s a sudden surge in foot traffic. I also need to build a better case for the whole setup to protect it from the weather. It’s a fun little project, and it’s neat to see how you can use some basic tech to get a better understanding of how people use public spaces.