Okay, so I’ve been trying to figure out a good way to track how many people are coming in and out of my little shop. You know, just to get a better handle on things, like when it’s busiest and if my marketing stuff is actually working. I looked at some fancy systems, but honestly, they were way too expensive for my needs.

So, I started digging around for something simpler, something more…DIY. I stumbled upon these “people counting sensors” and thought, “Hey, this might actually work!”

My Little Experiment Begins

First, I grabbed a couple of different sensors online. There are a bunch of types, like infrared beam sensors and thermal sensors. I went with one of each to see which one I liked better.

  • Infrared Beam Sensor: It’s basically like an invisible tripwire. When someone walks through the beam, it breaks the connection, and that’s how it counts.
  • Thermal Sensor: This one detects body heat. It’s supposed to be a bit more accurate, especially if you have, like, groups of people walking in together.

Getting them set up was…interesting. The infrared one was pretty straightforward. I just mounted the two parts on either side of my doorway, making sure they lined up. The thermal sensor was a little trickier; I had to play around with the positioning to get it to read accurately.

The Trial Run (and a Few Hiccups)

I kept a little notebook by the door and manually counted people coming in and out for a few days, just to compare it to what the sensors were saying. The infrared sensor was okay, but it definitely missed a few people, especially when it got busy. The thermal sensor did better, but it sometimes counted my shop cat as a person…oops!

It was a bit clumsy trying to manually write all day, so then try to implement it into simple note-taking software.

After that, I found an app that read the data and I set up a simple excel to record the number.

The Result

After a week of testing, I was able to improve the accuracy of the data by adjusting the position and height.

I finally get a clear chart, and the accuracy of the count reaches 95%, that’s great!