People Counting Technologies: A Comprehensive Guide

Now more than ever, physical businesses need reliable and accurate people counting technology. In places like retail stores, different types of technology are used to help everything run smoothly and efficiently. These tools are very flexible and cover all parts of a business—from security cameras and checkout systems to safety alarms and smart locks—giving you everything you need to fully understand how your business is working.

V-Count’s Latest People Counting Solutions: Nano, Nano Outdoor, Nano Prime, and BoostBI

V-Count’s latest range of people counting products—Nano, Nano Outdoor, Nano Prime, and BoostBI—uses advanced 3D active stereo vision and AI-on-chip technology to provide up to 99% accuracy, handle data in a GDPR-compliant way, and easily work with business systems around the world. Below is a detailed look at each product, made to fit different needs for indoor, outdoor, and data analysis use.

Nano: The Eco-Friendly Indoor People Counter

Nano is a small, easy-to-use sensor made for indoor spaces, providing high accuracy and being environmentally friendly.

• 99% Accuracy: Uses 3D active stereo vision and AI tracking to count visitors accurately, even in total darkness (0 Lux).

• Plug-and-Play Installation: Installs in less than 5 minutes using USB-C power and connects to Wi-Fi up to 40 meters away.

• Eco-Friendly Design: Doesn’t use batteries and runs on 5V USB-C power, helping reduce environmental impact.

• Staff Exclusion: Leaves out employees from visitor counts for more accurate data (added in Q1 2024).

• Queue Management: Tracks lines at checkouts or self-service areas to cut wait times and prevent people from leaving their carts.

• GDPR Compliance: Uses AI-on-chip to handle data directly on the device, keeping information private.

• Applications: Great for retail stores, supermarkets, libraries, and banks—helps with better staffing, lowers energy use, and increases sales.

Nano Outdoor: The World’s First Outdoor People Counter

Nano Outdoor is a strong, waterproof sensor made for outdoor use, keeping high accuracy even in tough weather.

• Extreme Durability: Works in temperatures from -25°C to +60°C and has IP65 waterproofing to handle rain, snow, and sandstorms.

• Night Vision: Accurately counts people even in complete darkness using infrared light.

• Plug-and-Play Setup: Easy to install with USB-C power and Wi-Fi, saving on cable costs.

• Eco-Friendly: Runs without batteries, helping lower its impact on the environment.

• Customizable: Can be adjusted to fit different business needs for the best outdoor results.

  
  

Applications: Great for outdoor retail areas, plazas, parks, and event spaces, giving real-time occupancy data to improve safety and efficiency.

Nano Prime: Advanced In-Store Analytics

Nano Prime focuses on heatmap and zone analytics, helping businesses understand customer behavior and store performance.

• Heatmap Analytics: Shows where customers spend the most and least time by creating dwell-time maps.

• Zone Analytics: Follows how visitors move through different store areas, covering up to 120 square meters from a 4.5-meter height.

• High Resolution: Uses a special grid system to analyze small areas in detail.

• API Integration: Easily connects with POS systems to simplify business operations.

• 99% Accuracy: Uses 3D stereo vision for accurate people counting and behavior tracking.

Applications: Retailers use Nano Prime to improve store layouts, product placement, and pricing to better engage customers.

BoostBI: The Visitor Analytics Platform

BoostBI is V-Count’s powerful analytics platform that turns foot traffic data into useful insights through an easy-to-use dashboard and mobile app.

• Real-Time Insights: Instantly tracks foot traffic, occupancy, and performance data.

• Comprehensive Dashboards: Shows key metrics like conversion rates and dwell times across different locations.

• Mobile Access: Lets you manage everything remotely using iOS and Android apps.

• API Integration: Works smoothly with POS and other systems to improve operations.

• Multilingual Support: Available in 19 languages for global use.

• Sales Coach: Gives smart tips to help boost revenue.

Applications: BoostBI helps businesses lower costs, improve marketing, and run more efficiently, with many clients seeing big increases in revenue.

The Importance of Using People Counters

As the pandemic changes consumer behavior, retail stores are searching for ways to improve their conversion rates. To do this, they need to understand visitor data and shopping habits — and that’s where people counters, or people counting sensors, come in.

Visitor counters give useful foot traffic data that helps managers make better business decisions. These sensors can be used in many industries, such as retail, shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels, casinos, airports, libraries, schools or universities, gas stations, banks, museums, theme parks, or any other business with a physical space.

Which People Counting Technology Is Right for Your Business?

While people counters are fairly easy to use, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming because there are so many options available.

Beam Counters /Infrared People Counters

Beam counter sensors—also called infrared beam counters, infrared footfall counters, or IR people counters—have a receiver and transmitter placed side by side at entrances. When something blocks the signal between them, it counts as one person.

However, beam sensors have some drawbacks. They can’t tell if someone is going in or out because they don’t detect direction. They also aren’t very accurate since people standing side by side are counted as one, and accuracy gets worse as the door gets wider. Although newer beam counters have basic filters to improve accuracy, they still have trouble telling humans apart from things like shopping carts or strollers.

The bottom line: Beam counters are a cheaper and easy-to-install option, but their range is limited and results can be inaccurate—especially for wider doors or busy places.

CCTV People Counting

CCTV cameras (closed-circuit television cameras) can track people’s movements by using a people counting algorithm that detects and records how many people pass through a certain area. For wide entrances or large spaces, multiple cameras are connected across the ceiling.

However, CCTV cameras aren’t made specifically for people counting, which limits their effectiveness and leads to low accuracy. Even though AI algorithms have improved detection recently, the system can still make mistakes because of things like blocked views, shadows, or moving objects like strollers. CCTV also raises privacy concerns and needs GDPR-compliant data handling to avoid legal problems.

The bottom line: Since CCTV cameras aren’t built for counting people, their accuracy is lower than dedicated sensors. To cover wider areas, multiple cameras are needed from different angles, which makes the overall cost higher.

Thermal Counters

Thermal counters measure foot traffic by detecting body heat. They create images using infrared radiation, similar to how regular cameras use visible light. These sensors are placed above entrances to spot human body temperatures and count people.

Thermal counters can be affected by sunlight because sunlight contains the full light spectrum. Crowded groups also reduce accuracy since the sensors find it hard to tell people apart when body heat overlaps. Although newer models have better resolution, they still struggle to accurately count visitors when the air temperature is close to body temperature. Thermal sensors work in complete darkness, but their narrow field of view means you need more sensors for bigger areas, which raises costs.

The bottom line: Thermal sensors have low resolution and limited viewing angles, making it difficult to tell adults from children, which can affect demographic data. Also, weather conditions can reduce their accuracy.

2D Mono Counters

2D Mono counters—or monocular sensors—use a single camera lens to count people. They’re installed from above and detect only moving objects. The counting algorithm removes the still background and tracks just the moving items.

Because mono counters don’t have depth vision, they can’t smartly tell objects apart, so every moving thing gets counted. Newer 2D mono counters use basic AI to filter some non-human objects, but they still aren’t accurate in busy places, changing light, or areas with shadows, sunlight, crowds, strollers, or children. They have a wide field of view, making them better for low-traffic, well-lit areas.

The bottom line: Mono counters are affordable and easy to install but give inaccurate results that depend on the environment, so they’re best for low-traffic places.

Wireless People Counters

Wireless people counters—also called Wi-Fi people counters—come in different sizes, sometimes as big as a home router. They used to work by detecting smartphones with Wi-Fi on, tracking their MAC addresses. But because smartphones now randomize MAC addresses for privacy, their accuracy has dropped a lot. Today, wireless counters use other signals like Bluetooth or anonymous device detection, but they still need people to carry active devices and can’t count groups like families or people without devices. Their signal range usually varies by 3-5 meters, which can cause them to pick up extra or unwanted data.

The bottom line: Wi-Fi counters work best as a backup tool, not as the main people counting system, especially since they’re less reliable in today’s world.

Time-of-Flight Sensors

Time-of-Flight counters, or ToF sensors, are about the same size as thermal cameras. They count by measuring how long it takes for a signal to travel from the sensor to an object and back. ToF sensors send out a signal—like ultrasound, infrared, or laser—toward objects below, then record the time it takes for the signal to return and count based on that.

Sunlight, which covers the full light spectrum, can disrupt the signals a lot. Even though newer ToF sensors have better signal processing, accuracy drops when objects are farther from the sensor. Their low resolution makes it hard to tell visitors apart from objects or children in crowded entrances. ToF sensors work in complete darkness but need several sensors to cover large areas, which raises costs.

The bottom line: Time-of-flight sensors can give inaccurate data, and needing multiple sensors for wider coverage makes them more expensive.

3D Stereo People Counters

3D people counters use 3D Stereo Vision technology to detect and count people. This technology extracts 3-dimensional information from images.

You can compare it to how human vision works: instead of eyes, computer stereo vision uses two cameras. These cameras take two separate pictures at the same time, which are then combined to create one image with depth information. Modern 3D stereo counters use AI to improve object detection and filtering, reaching 95-98% accuracy in most situations.

Stereo people counters are installed above entry and exit points. Because they have depth perception, the cameras can ignore objects that don’t meet set height limits during setup. Accuracy can vary depending on the system.

Unlike other sensors, stereo vision is not affected by sunlight, shadows, or other environmental factors.

The bottom line: 3D video sensors offer clear benefits over other people counting technologies by creating 3D images for very accurate counting results.

3D Active Stereo Vision Counters

Active stereo vision works like human stereo vision but with an extra feature—it projects light onto the area being monitored to create depth information even in complete darkness. This way, it uses the benefits of 3D stereo vision even when there’s no light.

3D active stereo vision combines images to create depth maps that allow very accurate and reliable counting, often reaching up to 99% accuracy with AI improvements. The sensors are installed on the ceiling to watch the location’s entrance.

For example, at a location entrance in complete darkness, the system creates 3D depth information and marks visitors’ heads with red circles. The algorithm tracks these circles and counts people when they cross imaginary lines set up by V-Count’s support team.

Because objects are identified by their height, even people standing side by side are counted correctly. This technology has a wide field of view to cover the whole area, helping reduce the overall cost for customers.

The bottom line: 3D active stereo vision counters are the best choice for accuracy, reliability, and flexibility in different environments.

Conclusion

V-Count’s Nano, Nano Outdoor, Nano Prime, and BoostBI are the top people counting technologies, delivering outstanding accuracy, privacy protection, and flexibility. These solutions help businesses make smart decisions, improve operations, and create better customer experiences both indoors and outdoors.