From People Counting to People Sensing: IoT for Business Insight

Operating a business—any business—is an exercise in resource allocation. When do you need more (or less) staff? Where could you save on energy costs? Which of your investments should you double down on, and which should you abandon? 

You can get answers to all these questions by studying human behavior. Which humans? That will vary from one business to the next—after all, retail customers behave very differently than residential building tenants—but behavioral data can help everyone run a stronger operation. 

For years, IoT has helped business owners study people at the simplest level. People-counting IoT solutions are well-established by this point, and they can still provide lots of valuable insight. 

But sometimes you need to know more than how many customers are in your store at any given time. Sometimes you need to know what those people are doing, too.

That’s where people counting gives way to people sensing: stronger IoT technologies that count people while also delivering priceless behavioral data.

A people counter tells you how many customers entered your store this morning; a people sensor gives you that information, plus crucial behavioral details. Keep reading to find out what today’s advanced people-sensing technologies can do for your operation.

People Sensing Vs. People Counting

People sensors do everything a counting system can do and then some. They’ll give you a headcount, certainly, but they’ll also provide crucial contextual and behavioral information.

With the right IoT people-sensing system, you can track: 

• Dwell time at a given location
  
• Traffic patterns
  
• Groups of people
  
• Staff versus non-staff
  
• Adults versus children
  
• Cart presence and even fill-level
  
• Detailed attributes like gender and facial expressions (with complete anonymity)
  
• And more!

Business Value Through People-Sensing Technology

That data delivers measurable business benefits by delivering the following: 

• A stronger understanding of how your business operates on a moment-to-moment level.
  
• See if your staff shows up where they need to be when they need to be there.
  
• Use heat mapping to find out if people are engaging with your latest expensive display or using new building features. 
  
• Measure the success of operational adjustments.

• Key insights into customer behavior.
  

  • Study traffic patterns to plan a better layout. 
    
  • Observe people’s interactions with features to determine whether you’re wasting resources on an underutilized area.
    
  • See which customers buy more, and discover what else you can do to fill carts faster.

• Contextual information that turns information into insight.
  

  • Track grouping to better understand group behavior.
    
  • Recognize adults and children to study family patterns. 
    
  • Analyze traffic flow to optimize layout.

• Information about occupancy and facility utilization.
  

  • Get real-time occupancy data.
    
  • Study utilization patterns in specific zones.

• All the data you get from a standard people counting system.
  

  • IoT people sensing includes people counting, with the right systems delivering accuracy of up to 99.8%.
    
  • Segment your headcounts for greater insights. For example, you can study employees versus visitors, adults versus children, and more.
    
  • Get 100% anonymous identity and gender data for everyone in your building.

• Attribute recognition for a closer look into customer behavior.
  

  • Categorize facial expressions to understand customer feelings on a deeper level. 
    
  • Track social attributes—anonymously—for detailed segmentation.

People-sensing technology provides a much more detailed dataset than a simple people counter. So how can you benefit from a top-notch people-sensing system?   

Understanding Use Cases for People-Sensing Technology

If you operate a facility—public or private, commercial or residential—your business will benefit from people sensing. Every brick-and-mortar business can improve operational efficiency with people sensing, which gives you valuable insights for better resource allocation and service improvements. 

That said, here are a few of the top use cases for this IoT technology. 

1. Smart Buildings and Facility Management 

Find out when and how people use your dedicated desks, meeting rooms, or other features. Enable dynamic space utilization, in which lighting and HVAC respond in real time to the presence or absence of users. Enact a predictive maintenance program, including optimal cleaning schedules that respond to real-time conditions. 

People sensing is ideal for smart office buildings, as a top Malaysian port company discovered when they implemented the technology. The people-sensing system allowed facility managers to automate lighting based on occupancy, for example. Occupancy sensors also helped a Canadian cleantech leader identify peak energy usage, so they could reduce lighting, HVAC, and overall energy expenditures in more than 62 buildings at once.

2. Retail and Customer Experience 

Use heatmaps to analyze customer behavior, determining the best possible layout for your store. See what leads customers to fill their carts with cart-fill recognition tools. 

For example, one IoT provider deployed more than 1,000 AI-enhanced people sensors in retail stores across Europe. These people-sensing systems showed retailers when shopping queues got too long, so they could optimize layouts, staffing, and more.    

3. Smart Homes 

Automate lighting and HVAC systems to save energy while ensuring resident comfort. Improve resident safety with fall detection and intruder alerts. Study facility usage to see if people are using features like on-site gyms.  

4. Healthcare and Assisted Living 

Protect patients and residents with fall detection and activity tracking tools. Personalize care with routine analysis and well-being insights. See if a resident is trying to unsafely exit the facility.

5. Transportation and Public Transit 

Identify peak usage times with passenger flow management tools. Keep your eye on crowd density to see where you need to invest. 

6. Event Venues and Entertainment 

Discover where you could do a better job with pedestrian flow optimization, thanks to density management tools. Then go a step further to improve audience engagement with interaction-analysis technology. 

IoT people-sensing technology even helped a historic Italian theater manage guest flow in high-traffic areas like the entrance and the bar. Meanwhile, occupancy and space analysis capabilities helped managers optimize the use of space on balconies and in restrooms. 

Of course, not every people-sensing platform can deliver on all of these promises. You have to choose the right one. Here’s how.

What to Look for in a People-Sensing Solution  

People-sensing technology is advancing rapidly. Today’s advanced systems offer features like enhanced attribute recognition, flow analytics, and conversion tracking. Be sure to partner with a provider that offers a diverse range of devices and ongoing software development. This will ensure your system remains adaptable and future-proof. 

But what kind of people-sensing solution is right for your use case? The answer depends on your challenge. 

• If you need to recognize visitor attributes, like gender or even facial expression, look for a device that combines binocular technology with deep learning AI. Install sensors above retail aisles and check-out lines for granular data on the shopper’s experience. 

• If cost efficiency is your top priority, choose devices that rely on passive infrared (PIR) and break beam technologies, which register people crossing an invisible line. These provide strong accuracy at a low price point. Install them in entrances or exits for reliable counts of building occupants. 

• If precision is more important than cost efficiency, look for thermopile sensors, which recognize people based on temperature for even stronger data. Install them on facility ceilings or the lintels above a door frame for precise people counting in your chosen areas. 

• For the greatest accuracy, choose devices known as AI Time-of-Flight People Counting Sensors. These solutions use artificial intelligence to zero in on the types of data points described above. Install them at entrances for bi-directional people counting, plus differentiation between adults and children and/or staff recognition. Or place them on retail ceilings to get a view of shopping carts for fill-level detection. 

Time of flight, or ToF, is a technique that tracks how long it takes for a radio wave to bounce back from an object. A ToF sensor registers accurate 3D images without taking pictures, so it can be anonymous and GDPR-compliant. Prioritize anonymity and compliance when you search for a people-sensing solution. 

Choose devices that include onboard AI for group counting, flow analytics, queue management, heat mapping, and even conversion-rate calculation. However, the IoT device is only part of the ideal people-sensing system. Also look for the following: 

• Compatibility with existing software platforms, ideally through open APIs and MQTT(s)/HTTP interoperability.

• Devices that adapt well to specific spaces, such as small entrance areas that demand high accuracy; wide open spaces; bathroom cubicles; desks; passages; exits; and meeting rooms. 

• Industry-leading people-sensing solutions now approach levels of 99.8% accuracy, ensuring that even the most demanding environments are catered to with minimal error.

Finally, be sure to work with a people-sensing partner that offers a strong device management platform with ongoing application development. Such a provider will be with you long after you deploy your system, ensuring a future-proof set of benefits.

To sum it all up, people counting is still a great strategy for optimizing any business. But people sensing is rapidly becoming the industry standard. When you choose the right sensing solution, you’ll get advantages that leave mere people-counting systems—and your competitors—in the dust.