Counting customer in a shop?

[TommySharp]

My wife wants me to buy her a cheap IR based “Ding Dong Welcome” type door chime that makes a noise whenever someone enters her shop as she works a lot in the back office.

I’d prefer to pimp it out and make it sound a buzzer in the back office rather than startling the customer… And why not count foot traffic while we’re at it…

Has anyone seen a project like this before?

[rlkoshak (Rich Koshak)]

@TommySharp

I’d prefer to pimp it out and make it sound a buzzer in the back office rather than startling the customer… And why not count foot traffic while we’re at it…

From a customer’s perspective, when I enter a shop and no one is around but I hear the “ding dong” chime I actually feel comforted in the knowledge that the shopkeeper knows I’m there.

I’ve not seen such a project before but it sounds like a fun one to think about. The challenge is distinguishing between someone entering verses someone exiting. Months ago someone posted on this forum a paper where a couple of people wired up some PIRs and wrote some learning code that allowed them to sense not just motion but the direction of that motion. With that I bet you would be able to know when someone is entering or leaving at which point counting is easy.

Motion sensor

Hi I would like to make a smart motion detector. My idea is to count people in and out of the room by using an array of four PIR sensor. [image] Does anyone knows where I can get this pcb produced, is it feasible? Should I add battery to it? IS this something other openhab user would like? For me it will be brilliant to keep the lights on as long as I am in the room, and only turn off lights if all people leaves the room. The way Motion sensors work today they only make sense to turn on ligh…

You will still have edge cases so the count will never be 100% accurate (e.g. someone starting to come in but changes their mind before fully entering) but it could get you really close.

[skatun (Kim Skatun)]

Hi @TommySharp, great that you are interested in the same as me. So I came across a scientific paper on this topic a while back (PM me with ur email adress and I can forward it to you).

So my biggest problem so far was to get some suitable PIR sensor in breakout format , I landed at these ones:
http://www.uctronics.com/5pcs-re200b-3pin-pir-pyroelectric-passive-ir-infrared-sensor.html

Orginally i was gooing to only use two, but the paper suggested to use an array instead(at least 4) so I might head that way.

So the principle is easy, if sensor A detects a pulse before B then you are moving in, if opposite on the way out. The problem is however noice , signal strength etc…

Do you plan to use arduino to do the processing?

[TommySharp]

Yeah was thinking of using an arduino to control it… haven’t had much free time to ponder much on it though.