n What’s the impact of a sales event on foot traffic?
n What’s the impact of new opening hours?Tracking Audiences for Advertising and Self-Service Facilities
People counters can provide information on how many people view advertise-
ments or information on digital signage or electronic tickers and activity on
self-service devices such as kiosks. Data on the number of viewers and users
of these devices are useful for evaluating the advertising and/or the placement
of equipment within a building.
HVAC Control
People counters are useful for optimizing the air quality and energy use based
on actual occupancy of a building or space. Actual people counts can be used
at the beginning of the workday to start up and ramp up the HVAC system
properly. People counting can be used upstream as well as downstream in
the ventilation of certain spaces.
For example, an advanced HVAC control approach is CO 2 demand control
ventilation (DCV), which is best used in large areas, open office spaces, thea-
ters, assembly areas, ballrooms, and so on. A CO 2 sensor is deployed to opti-
mize the use of outdoor air and the energy required to condition the air.
The CO 2 sensor is really a “people counter.” People exhale CO 2 , and the
CO 2 sensor reflects the occupancy of the space by the level of CO 2. But there
are limits to sensing occupancy through CO 2 sensors, and at times such sensors
are unreliable and provide poor estimates of occupancy. People-counting tech-
nology with accuracy rates of 95% provides more reliable and accurate esti-
mates of occupancy.
Space Planning
Fifty percent of the space in a typical office building is unoccupied during the
business day. People counters can provide information on how buildings,
floors, and spaces are actually being used, thus allowing a company to opti-
mize the allocation of employees to spaces and to evaluate options such as
“hoteling” or “hot-desking.”
Staff Management
People counters provide data that management can use to better understand
a building’s traffic patterns, event attendance, seasonal impact, time-of-day
differences, and so on. With such data in hand, management can then determine
appropriate staffing and security levels to ensure optimal services and sales.
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