Okay, so I wanted to track how many people were walking by a certain spot, you know, like a people counter. I needed something accurate and I didn’t wanna spend a ton of money. So, I dove in and started messing around. Here’s how it went down:
The Initial Idea
First, I thought, “Okay, what’s the easiest way to do this?” I could have bought some fancy, expensive system, but nah, that’s not my style. I wanted to build something myself. I figured I’d use a camera and some computer vision stuff.
Setting Up the Hardware
I grabbed an old webcam I had lying around – didn’t need anything high-tech. Then, I hooked it up to a Raspberry Pi. I’ve used these little guys for tons of projects, they’re super versatile. I made sure the camera had a good view of the area I wanted to monitor. Pretty straightforward, just plugged it in and made sure it was working.
The Software Struggle
This is where it got a bit tricky. I’m not a coding expert, but I know enough to be dangerous. I found some open-source libraries. I started playing around, trying to get the software to recognize people.
The Counting Logic
Once I had the detection working (sort of), I had to figure out how to actually count the people. I set up a virtual “line” on the screen. When a person’s “feet” crossed that line, it would register as a count. I messed with this for a while, getting the line in the right spot and making sure it wasn’t counting the same person multiple times.
Testing and Tweaking
This part took the longest. I’d run the system, watch the video feed, and see how it was doing. It would count random objects, miss people, double-count… it was a mess. I spent hours tweaking the settings, adjusting the sensitivity, and playing with the detection parameters. I had to re-adjust the physical camera a few times, too, to get the best angle.
Finally, Some Accuracy!
After a LOT of trial and error, I finally started getting some decent results. It wasn’t perfect, but it was accurately counting most of the people walking by. I even added a little display to show the current count. It felt pretty good to see it working!
It’s still a work in progress. There are a few things to improve with detection and such things. All things considered equal, it is working better than I expected!