Okay, so I wanted to get a better handle on how many people were coming through a certain area, and not just the numbers, but also a bit about who they were. I figured a “foot traffic counter with visitor demographic insights” would be the perfect thing. Here’s how I went about setting it up.
The Idea
First, I needed a way to actually count people. I mean, that’s the basic starting point, right? I didn’t want to just sit there with a clicker all day. And, I wanted more than just a raw count – I was curious about things like, are they mostly men or women? Adults or kids? That sort of thing.
Getting Started: The Hardware
I started by looking for some kind of sensor. I played around with a few different options:
- Basic infrared beam break sensors: These are pretty simple. You have a transmitter and a receiver. When someone walks through and breaks the beam, it counts. Cheap, but it only gives you a total count. No fancy details.
- Thermal cameras: These are a bit more advanced. They detect heat signatures, so you can kind of see the outline of a person. Better than nothing, but still not super precise for demographics.
- Computer vision cameras: This is where things got interesting. A regular webcam, combined with the right software, could actually see people and potentially analyze their features.
I ended up going with the computer vision route. It seemed like the most promising for getting the extra info I wanted.
The Software: Making Sense of the Images
This was the trickiest part, to be honest. I’m not a programmer, so I needed something relatively user-friendly. I experimented with a few different things:
- Some pre-built solutions for foot traffic counting. Some worked okay, but they didn’t offer any demographic stuff.
- Open-source computer vision libraries. This got complicated fast. Lots of coding, and I spent hours just trying to get things to install correctly.
I don’t have enough coding skills, so I gave up.
- Finally, I just selected a camera and software provided by a professional solution manufacturer.
Putting It All Together
I mounted the camera above the area I wanted to monitor. I made sure it had a good, clear view. Then, I connected the camera to my computer and installed the software. I don’t need to set up anything, I just put the camera on a tripod and put it on the doorway, and I can count the data.
The Results!
It worked! I could see a live feed of the camera, and the software was drawing little boxes around people as they walked by. More importantly, it was giving me a running count, and it was attempting to categorize people by age group and gender. It wasn’t perfect, of course – sometimes it would misclassify someone – but it was surprisingly accurate most of the time.
It’s been really interesting to see the patterns. I can see when the busiest times are, and I’m starting to get a sense of who my typical “visitors” are. It’s definitely more insightful than just a simple counter. The data gives me a good idea of my customers, which is cool.