EvolvePlus Blog

The EvolvePlus ePortal web application provides data-driven analysis with dashboards and reports across people counter data from Overhead 3D, Wireless, USB and LoRaWAN people counters across specified date and time periods. This valuable information reveals in-depth traffic insight to determine optimal operating hours, staffing requirements and peak visitor times.

Our latest API for ePortal application is a RESTful API service to deliver EvolvePlus Overhead 3D and Infrared footfall data from the EvolvePlus Cloud Service in JSON format.

It enables customers to visualise count data from the EvolvePlus people counters into their own analytics applications such as Zoho Analytics and Microsoft PowerBI. Use your business intelligence dashboard to gain a richer insight by combining data from multiple sources into a centralised view, including sales results, financial statements, library statistics, event sales and people traffic counts.,  

For enhanced people counter analysis of visitor and customer numbers our Overhead 3D People Counter sensors can provide separate footfall statistics for Adults & Children.  

The onboard Artificial Intelligence (AI) detects the height of each person and counts as either an Adult or Child based on the height. You can configure the sensor with the height that you wish to use to differentiate each detected person as an Adult or Child.

The result is a more detailed analysis of customers and visitors, which is displayed via reports and charts within the EvolvePlus Dashboard.

In our January 2021 article we described how our Overhead 3D People Counter solution can identify employees and exclude them from the footfall traffic counts. This provides greater accuracy of people counter analysis for sales conversion ratios, visitor numbers, etc. 

Whilst our Wireless and USB Infrared People Counters do not support using specially designed name tags to exclude staff from statistics, our EvolvePlus Reporting & Analytics platform does provide a daily statistics report to display total footfall traffic counts and an adjusted total based on your own calculated staff ratio.

For more information on accessing the Daily People Counter Reduced By Staff Ratio Report contact EvolvePlus.

EvolvePlus is pleased to announce updates to its LoRaWAN People Counter, which includes support for the AS923 band. The advantage of the LoRaWAN AS923 band is that it is being widely used for IoT devices across both Australia and New Zealand, and more broadly supported by LoRaWAN network operators and gateways.

Our battery-powered LoRaWAN People Counting solution enables organisations to easily count people at both indoor and outdoor entrances that may be located hundreds of metres from the nearest mains power source and have the data automatically transmitted to an online cloud platform for analysis and reporting.

Some of the facilities where the battery-powered People Counter sensors can be implemented include parks, footpaths, sporting facilities, public toilets, cemeteries, information centres and more. Organisations can choose to push the data to either the EvolvePlus Reporting & Analytics platform or to their own reporting platform being used for other IoT projects.

We have recently published a new video overview of the EvolvePlus Overhead 3D People Counter solution. It shows how the solution counts footfall traffic in different directions whilst using the onboard Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect adults & children (based on height range), exclude staff from counts and provide gender statistics.

Also highlighted in the video is the EvolvePlus Dashboard & Analytics platform, which delivers interactive web-based charts, dashboards and reports that can be exported in a variety of formats including Excel, CSV and Word.

The challenge faced by many organisations is how to effectively count people at entrances and facilities that may be located hundreds of metres from the nearest mains power source and have the data automatically transmitted to an online cloud platform for analysis and reporting.

Our LoRaWAN People Counting solution solves this challenge by installing battery powered People Counter sensors at the remote locations (e.g. parks, sporting grounds, public toilets, footpaths, buildings, libraries, visitor centres and leisure complexes) and automatically transmitting the footfall traffic data to a LoRaWAN gateway that is located hundreds of metres away from the entrance (and in some cases a few kilometres away with a high powered base station and long range antennas).

The counting principle is based on the interruption of a horizontal infrared beam from the Transmitter causing the LoRaWAN Receiver to record incremental counts. When the outer edge of the wide horizontal infrared beam is interrupted in either direction, e.g. by a person, car, bike, pram etc. the LoRaWAN Receiver detects this disruption and will send this information to the LoRaWAN Gateway. The allowable max distance between the Transmitter and LoRaWAN Receiver is up to 8 metres.

EvolvePlus have a range of outdoor people counters featuring secure, robust casing, ideal for environments such as public toilets, park entrances, festivals, footpaths and more.

The outdoor casing is moulded from the finest commercial grade plastic and designed to withstand the harsh outdoor elements whilst providing superior security for the battery powered people counter sensors. There are two different types of robust outdoor casing available:

• With black front cover to suit entrances up to 3 metres wide
• With clear front cover to suit entrances up to 5 metres wide

The people counter models available with the robust outdoor casing are:

Our ePortal web application enables insights of people counter movements via dashboards and analysis reporting across our various traffic counter sensors including Wireless, LoRaWAN, USB, Overhead Thermal and Overhead 3D with AI.

The ePortal module is available for Cloud editions of our People Counter solution, with version 3 featuring new interactive charts and monitoring of the sensor status.

For enhanced people counter analysis of sales conversion ratios, visitor numbers, live occupancy, client dwell times, etc. our Overhead 3D People Counter solution can identify employees and exclude them from the footfall traffic counts.  The onboard Artificial Intelligence (AI) detects staff wearing specially designed name tags without having to use additional computers or devices.

This results in more accurate customer counts, sales conversion ratios and live occupancy dashboards that don't require manual adjustments to exclude staff from the counts.

How It Works

• Ensure the Overhead 3D People Counter sensor is installed at the recommended mounting height (3.0 to 3.5 metres for model PC2S) with suitable lighting levels
• Create Staff Exclusion tags for staff to wear (refer below specifications)
• Enable the optional Staff Exclusion plugin on the 3D sensor and configure the detection area to check either the left or right of the frontal upper torso of a person for the staff tag

Staff Tag Specifications

Height, width and shape:

How City of Port Phillip will monitor the usage of Community Parklet Pop-Ups

Background

The temporary community parklets are a new form of public space popping up in parking bays across the City of Port Phillip.

EvolvePlus provides an extensive range of IoT People Counter solutions for both indoor and outdoor environments including libraries, retail stores, shopping centres, galleries, public toilets, office buildings, park entrances, leisure centres, pedestrian paths and more.

With so many different people counting models to choose from, including Wireless, USB, Display Only, Overhead Thermal, Overhead 3D, Single Side Laser and LoRaWAN, it can be confusing to know which model is best suited for your footfall tracking.

To help you choose the most suitable people counter we have created a People Counter Features Comparison page which provides a quick side by side comparison of the various features.

Our battery-powered LoRaWAN People Counters offer a reliable, user-friendly, and affordable people counter solution that provides valuable insights and footfall traffic analytics to organisations. LoRaWAN is a Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) networking protocol designed to wirelessly connect battery operated IoT sensors over long distances.

One of the key features of our LoRaWAN People Counters is the choice to push the traffic data to either the EvolvePlus Reporting & Analytics platform or to your own reporting platform.

The following provides an example of how organisations can push JSON data from the LoRaWAN People Counters using HTTP Integration within The Things Network community edition. 

We've recently enhanced our Occupancy application for the EvolvePlus Wireless Counters to provide an additional visual alert when displaying a live count of the number of people currently inside your building, which helps comply with COVID-19 social distancing regulations.

The Occupancy app has a new setting to provide a visual warning of when the occupancy is nearing the maximum occupancy threshold. The colours used in the display of the live count display are:

• Green: when the current number of people inside is below the maximum or warning threshold
• Orange: when the current occupancy is getting close to the maximum threshold
• Red (with additional message & sound alert): when the current occupancy has reached the maximum threshold

The live count total is displayed on a responsive designed web page compatible with TV screens, desktops, tablets and smartphones that can be mounted at the entrance or accessed remotely by staff. The live count total constantly updates higher or lower depending on the number of people entering or leaving the various entrances.

With Governments imposing social distancing regulations to flatten the curve of COVID-19 businesses are now required to control the number of visitors entering their venue, facility or shop. Many have responded by assigning physical personnel to control the customer traffic at their entrances/exits.

The Connected Occupancy Clicker is a web app that is designed for use by security guards, attendants, greeters, concierge to manually count customers entering or exiting multiple entry/exit points. The recorded count data is automatically synchronized across multiple devices and provides a live occupancy count which can be displayed on TV screens, desktops, tablets and smartphones.

When the occupancy limit is reached, a visual alert appears on both the Connected Occupancy Clicker and the associated screen display.

Versatile yet simple, the EvolvePlus Occupancy Display Counter is battery-powered and features a built-in LCD display. The discreet display enables easy data collection by displaying real-time count data showing separate directional counts and current number of people inside.

By means of advanced techniques and protocols, it is possible to detect the direction that a person walks through the horizontal beam emitted from the Transmitter. The two direction counts and total people inside calculation are clearly visible in real-time on the LCD display. 

Features include a 6-digit LCD display, integrated brackets for easy yet sturdy mounting, long battery life and reads through glass. The counters can be fitted on Anti-Shoplifting Gates without causing any interference or standard entrances up to 8 metres wide.

Our Occupancy People Counter solution featuring the People Inside Web Application enables organisations to view the number of people currently inside a venue. This feature is ideal for venues that are required to monitor capacity numbers in real time to comply with government regulations, liquor licensing laws, venue capacity limits, etc.

We currently have customers utilising this solution to assist with their compliance with the limits on organised gatherings due to the Coronavirus COVID-19 (internal gatherings of fewer than 100 people or outdoor gatherings of fewer than 500 people).

Our wireless people counters record the number of people entering and exiting a venue and automatically send the data every minute to the IMMOTION Cloud. We also offer Instant People Counters that relay data in real time without any lag to ensure you’re getting accurate to-the-second visitor numbers.

In addition to accuracy, privacy is an important issue for many organisations implementing a people counting solution to ensure they remain compliant with the relevant GDPR and Australian data privacy regulations. 

The EvolvePlus Horizontal Wireless and Overhead Thermal IoT people counters are the ideal solution to provide anonymous traffic monitoring for all types of environments including office buildings, retail stores, libraries, public toilets, footpaths and leisure centres. 

Our Horizontal Wireless and Overhead IoT people counting solutions utilise Infrared and Thermal technologies to accurately measure footfall traffic in real-time without using cameras or capturing personal data.

We've updated the video section of our EvolvePlus website with several new support videos for the EvolvePlus people counter solution.

The new videos include:

• Videos providing a step by step guide that shows how to change the batteries for the Wireless People Counters, USB People Counters and Display People Counters 
• A video that provides a step by step guide on how to download data from the USB People Counter to a USB Memory Stick and upload to the IMMOTION software application

Other videos on the site include installing the IMMOTION people counter software application for Windows Server, an overview of the web application for viewing people counter statistics per hour, day, week, month and year, as well as an overview of EvolvePlus IoT wireless, USB and overhead thermal people counters.

A key feature of our EvolvePlus IoT People Counters solution is our IMMOTION software platform where data from our IoT traffic counters and devices are available from a unified dashboard & reporting platform. 

The platform enables organisations to analyse their people counter data using dashboards, reports and charts accessed via web browsers on desktops, tablets or smartphones. Users can filter by specific locations, positions, sensor and date/time periods ( hour, day, week, month, and year).

We also recognise the need for organisations to incorporate their people counter data into their Business Intelligence apps - so we make it easy for organisations to connect to the data platform using a range of APIs for your authorised BI apps to read the footfall data and incorporate in a combined dashboard. For example: Hourly People Count vs Sales, Hourly People Count vs Staff Rostering, etc.

EvolvePlus is delighted to support the IPWEA International Public Works Conference being held from 25 to 29 August 2019 in Hobart, and is the largest public works Conference held in Australia

EvolvePlus offers an extensive range of people traffic counting solutions that deliver unparalleled accuracy and reliability. Our people counting systems solve a variety of traffic monitoring challenges for all types of public infrastructure including buildings, libraries, public toilets, footpaths and leisure centres, with models available for both indoor and outdoor use.

Whether you are trying to measure traffic to support project funding, optimise labour, determine usage, view occupancy or increase conversion ratios, the IMMOTION platform for Smart Cities offers a range of Internet of things (IoT) sensors to collect data and provides the ability to analyse the data to manage infrastructure and resources efficiently using data technologies such as NB-IoT, LoRaWAN, 3G/4G and Ethernet.