Jenny,
I think you will find that there is no electronic system that is totally
accurate. Or any other system, for that matter. Certainly there are some
systems that are inherently more accurate than others. Having a beam cross
a 25' opening certainly adds to the inaccuracy if you are trying to count
individual visitors. The cowboys and knights on horses don't help the
situation either.
In order for the system you have to give you useful information you need to
determine what sort of information you need from it. If you only need to
know whether the traffic volume is increasing or decreasing over a period of
time, you only need to record the number of legs crossing over a period of
time. Then compare the raw numbers.
If you need numbers that represent individual visitors for funding or other
purposes, then you can increase the accuracy by using statistic and some
legwork (pun intended). Hopefully, you have some volunteers that can help
with this part.
I'm no statistician, so you might want to get someone who is to give you
more precise methods (try your local university). Having said that, pick a
typical day or week if possible, have someone stand at the entrance with a
hand counter and tally sheet. Record the count and any other pertinent
information (such as school groups or people milling around the sensor).
Compare the numbers from your hand counts (which are inaccurate also) with
the electronic count and calculate an adjustment factor. A bit labor
intensive to setup but less expensive than installing another inaccurate
system.
I hope this helps.
-Mark-
* Mark Fowle, General Manager
* INNOVA Applied Technology
* 2841 East 19th Street
* Signal Hill, CA 90804
* Email: [log in to unmask]
* http://www.INNOVA-AT.com/
* Phone: (800) 417-9060
* Fax: (800) 773-7694
* Providers of Interactive Solutions *
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jenny Yearous" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 6:05 AM
Subject: electronic door counters
> We are having some concerns about the new door counters that have been
> installed using an electronic beam. The problem is that when a number of
> people enter at the same time, we lose people. The new counter that we
have
> is supposed to count legs, so at the end of the day we divide the total by
> 4. I estimate that we may be missing anywhere from 10 to 25%, depending
on
> the group.
>
> Some of the issues that we are dealing with:
> 1-We don't charge admission so, no way to track there.
> 2-Turnstiles while giving us an accurate count would be challenging
> because of safety/accessability issues.
> 3-Visitors that come in and out of the door more than once.
>
> Answers I'm looking for:
> 1-What methods of counting visitors are other facilities using.
> 2-Do they use a formula to account for those passing through more
> than once.
> 3-If they use the electronic beam, a) how accurate are they
> b) do they use one unit or more
> c) what distance do they measure (I think ours is measuring
> in a distance of about 25 ft)
>
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