Okay, so I’ve been trying to find a good way to track how many people are coming in and out of my little shop. I don’t have a huge budget, so those fancy, high-tech systems were way out of my price range. I needed something simple, affordable, and, you know, actually worked.
First, I started poking around online, just looking at what was even available. I saw some infrared beam systems. Sounded simple enough – a beam gets broken, it counts a person. I messed around with one of these for a bit.
- Installation was supposed to be easy. It…wasn’t. Getting the two sides of the beam to line up perfectly across my doorway, and stay lined up, was a real pain.
- It wasn’t very accurate. If two people walked through close together, it only counted one. If someone walked in and then right back out, it sometimes counted them twice. Ugh.
So, the beam thing was a bust. It’s cheap, I gave it that, but just not reliable enough for what I want.
Then I looked into those thermal camera setups. The idea is that they detect body heat, so they’re supposed to be more accurate, even in crowds. I found the price is also low.
The Actual Setup
It has two parts – the thermal sensor itself, which I mounted above my doorway, and a little box it plugs into. I had to provide my own power cords.
Mounting it was pretty easy this time. I just needed to find a spot where it had a clear view of the doorway. The little box it plugs into just sits near my cash register.
The counting seems pretty spot-on. I’ve been watching it, and it doesn’t seem to get fooled by people walking close together or anything like that. It’s definitely more accurate than the beam sensor.
So, that’s where I’m at. After trying a few different things, I think I can find the proper way for my shop. It isn’t perfect, but it gives me a good enough idea of how busy I am, and that’s all I really need.