General Question
For number of devices, it depends on the width and ceiling height. You may key in the data over here to have an estimation of the number of cameras.
FootfallCam ensures that the accuracy level of our counter are at least 90% with video proof provided that the user applied for the verification service by FootfallCam.
There will be virtually no difference to the features and data available based on the premise of installation. The only difference is the location where the data will be store in.
Ceiling height | Device |
Below 2.09 m | Not recommended for installation |
2.1 m – 2.49 m | Parabolic 140o lens |
2.5 m – 3.49 m | 90o lens |
3.5 m - 4.5 m | 65o lens |
Above 4.51 m | Use a Wall Bracket or Drop Pole to lower the height |
You may use this calculator to get the number of cameras required using entrance width and ceiling height.
Users will be export raw data from the Analytic Manager in one of four methods
- Manual Export
- Exporting via API
- Exporting via FTP
- Automate E-Mail Scheduling
It prevents crosstalk interference and unreliable network connection.
The counter is powered using Power over Ethernet. The main power required will be less than 10w.
An individual will not be counted twice even if the counter coverage overlaps an area, this is due to our verification specialist having the expertise to exclude overlapping area from each counter.
The software will support multiple counters and the counts from different counters can be combined in the web-based reporting software. Users can combine the counts of the 2 counters and view the total traffic IN and OUT or they can view the total IN and OUT individually for each counter.
The randomisation of the MAC Address will not afffect the counting accuracy since it only randomises the address when it is not connected to a mobile network. Users may refer to this link for more details on the impact of Wi-Fi tracking.
There will be the following two assumptions with Wi-Fi tracking analytic:
- Not everyone is using a Wi-Fi enabled device.
- Some individuals may be carrying more than one Wi-Fi enabled device.
However, by combining 2 technologies, with the ability to normalize the Wi-Fi data with the highly accurate counting data, this can give you the statistically valid metrics and trends, especially when it is over a long period and with big sample size.
The counter will use around 20mb data a day to upload videos for verification purpose. Once the counter is verified, the counter will only upload a maximum of 10kb of data per day.
We have the account management module where you can configure the access right for the user. You may have as many as user to access the reports and multiple levels of authority.
The Analytic Manager is available in English, Bahasa Malaysia, and Traditional Chinese.
Yes, the data will be uploaded once the counter regain its internet connection. (Provided counter power is turned on and running when the counter does not have internet connection).
Installation
No, our people counting counters do not need a dedicated PC to operate. The counter will be connected directly connected to a network. If you would like to access the camera, you may use your mobile phone to do it and even view the control panel.
The installation is straightforward and simple. All that is needed on site will be the cable installation, requiring only 1x Cat5e cable from the IT router to the counter. Therefore, any local handyman or IT person will be able to install it.
Yes, the counter can be easily relocated. You will need a Cat5e cable to connect the counter to the IT router. However, the accuracy of the counter would need to fine tune again after relocated to ensure it could achieve 90-95% accuracy as different setting would need to apply for different environment.
Our people counting counter would be installed at the middle of doorway, facing perpendicularly down to count people coming in or going out when they passing by the counter. Counter should be installed as close to the door as possible so that the counter does not pick up the activity inside the store which could affect the counting (usually is 1m from the door).
White-orange, orange, white-green, blue, white-blue, green, white-brown, brown.
A new casing that is meant to withstand the harsh outdoor environments is in development. The outdoor casing is subjected to availability and requires a notification in advanced of 3 weeks before it can be produced. The outdoor casing is also subjected to surcharge.
The normal retail shop and shopping mall light condition is good for the camera counting. But it is not suitable for the entertainment place like disco and club because the rapid change of light condition. The minimum light requirement is 250 lux.
No, our counter will ‘push’ the traffic data to the central database automatically.
We will set DHCP as default for the counter. So once the counter is connected to the network, an IP address will be assigned automatically for the counter. Of course, you can set a fixed IP address for it if you want.
There is not in-built battery in the counter.
The camera will be configured with the provided IT details (e.g. IP address, port, etc.) before delivered to the site. When the camera arrives on the site, full phone support is provided to the installer during the installation to make sure the camera is working properly and connected to the Internet. Then, the verification study will start to fine tune the camera counting accuracy. Full technical support is available via phone or remote connect support to diagnose and solve any technical issues.
The camera is powered using Power over Ethernet. Only one network cable for power supply and data transmission purpose is required.
One set of people counter requires 1x power socket.
We do have the data that can transmitted via GPRS. But it have the limitation. Our counter only have 1 USB port for Wi-Fi adapter in Wi-Fi counting solution. If replace the Wi-Fi adapter to 3G-dongle, the counter can access the internet without having LAN connection to the internet router port. The limitation of 3G-dongle replacement is the Wi-Fi counting solution will be disabled and only will have video counting.
We have install in lots of stores, shopping mall and art centre that have crowded visitors and they are happy on it. You may visit this link for a sample video.
Technical
FootfallCam WiFi counting for the 5 metrics can cover up to 50 metre2 in radius provided there is no obstruction blocking the WiFi signal.
Footfallcam has the manual accuracy tuning page for customer to perform the accuracy audit with the video footage recorded.
If you feel that it is not accurate, you can provide us the time span and we will take video and investigate for you. The Wi-Fi data would need 3 weeks sample size data for us to define the threshold for the wifi counting data.
It is not required as our counter do not require a port forwarding.
Our people counting system using a series of video process algorithm to count human traffic in bi-directional.
Yes, you can see the full history data from the beginning of the date. All data is stored in the central database.
People counter software consists of two main parts:
- Web-based component is a web application which enable user to view people counting report, manage user account and manage location and equipment settings.
- Windows service component is a windows service to get people counter value every 15 minutes.
It is a report that generate and list out the status or malfunction of the respective counter that located at different locations.
The functions are as below:
- Using the Wi-Fi tracking, we can detect how many smartphone at outside and the percentage come into the store with the relative number. Over the long term, you could see the interesting trend.
- We could track whether they are the returning customer since every customer would have their unique identifier by using smartphone and also the duration they stay in the stores.
- Giving a ‘turn in’ rate of how many people outside has come into the store passing under the counter- Measure if any promotional campaign or shop window display has driven traffic.
- Track when the phone comes in and leave- Giving dwell time.
- Track if it has visited before- Measure returning customer.
Due to privacy concern, MAC addresses store in our database has been hashed at counter level. It is a one way hashing. Therefore, we can't view the original MAC address information of customers.
Internet connection is needed to send the traffic data and recorded videos to the central location. However, all counting are done locally on the counter and the traffic data are stored directly to the built-in memory even when the Internet is down. Counting will not be interrupted even when the Internet is down. Whenever the Internet connection is restored, the traffic data will be transmitted back to the central server. However, to get the correct set of counting data (with correct time), the device has to be connected to the internet in order to sync with the internet NTP.
For the staff to be eliminated from the data, we could exclude it based on the dwell time result from Wi-Fi count as the staff would stay in the store more than 3 hours. Kindly refer to KPI documentation for further details.
http://www.footfallcam.com/Content/data/documents/Technical_Guides/Technical_KPI.pdf
From server, you can see the live output of the data. It will also go to each individual counter to get raw data every 1 hour via your internal network, and input it into the central database. This is an automatic system which the computer/server will perform by itself in the background.
The bandwidth requirement per counter is 3kb every hour. All the counting will be done by the counter itself, only the traffic data (not the video) is transmitted back to the server.
The data backup will be logged for 3 months in the Server.
The software can support unlimited cameras.
For this case, there are 2 possible scenarios:
- The Footfallcam software is hosting in our server- You could access the data anytime at anyplace with the login details.
- The Footfallcam software is hosting in your internal server- The camera will only be accessed internally via your own network, and there will be no external access to the camera directly.
Our system is able to support over wide geographic area across different countries. The central database and the reporting software will be installed at the server at head office. From this server, it will go to each individual camera to get raw data every hour via the internal network, and input it into the central database. This is an automatic system which the computer/server will perform by itself in the background.
No, it does not.
The data can be exported as
Data will be stored permanently in the server, as the data is meaningful used to do the forecasting from the historical year.
Our web-based software can be installed in our secure cloud server or the retailer’s own corporate server. If you possess corporate server, you may choose to install the software into your server. The software installed will received new version upgrade and you will be given full access to the software which is having same function as cloud based software. You may go for this option if you have security concern or a large quantity of FootfallCam is installed.
The WiFi counting detects the MAC address of the mobile device, and encrypts it in a specific way, so that it's still able to distinguish the unique devices and know if they've been here before (returning customer). The encrypted ID is stored, not the original MAC. We couldn't get the phone number though. The WiFi signal of the phone is linked to the device, not the SIM card, hence we could only get the MAC but not the phone number.
We would need to do the port forwarding for port 80 (to push data to the central server) and port 22 (for our technical team to remote connect to the counter for software updates). Please provide the external IP address and port to us. Also, you would need to allow firewall access for port 22 and port 80 for this counter. This can be done by adding an entry to the access control list.
Yes, there are two technology- wifi counting and video counting could do in one device.
Normally for our customers they are look at the overall trend, not on the single customer. Besides, it will have privacy violation as well if look at every single customer.
We are collecting large sample size and the wifi counter data is normalised using the video counting data. In addition, Wifi coverage range is up to 100 metres in radius(in an open space) so it should be able to cover most outside traffic.
There is 2 options in doing this:
Option 1 – From your POS software, usually it will have the automatic export function, so the POS software can regularly dump the data to a folder. Then, we will set up our software to grab the data from that folder.
Option 2 – From our software, routinely request to your POS software to grab the data.
Yes. Due to the variances of store environment, counter parameter settings can be fine tune to make sure it is adjusted to fit into the current store environment and to optimize the counting accuracy. The retailer can choose to:
a.) Verified by your own staff- Web server is an user friendly tools for carry out a verification study by own staff.
b.)Verified by FootfallCam Specialist (50 pounds per verification report) - Alternatively, our verification specialist can provide this service which takes up to 5 hours, and report will be generated and send to the retailer.
Footfall traffic and conversion rate are key performance metrics for top management. People counters accuracy are under scrutiny. Each poor performance store manager would naturally blame the people counter first. Management cannot manage their stores if they don’t have a fully trustworthy people counting system.
FootfallCam can give you the statistically valid metrics and trends, especially when it is over a long period and with big sample size.
The Wi-Fi tracker will detect the unique MAC ID and signal strength of the mobile device of people around the door. When the people walk inside, the signal strength of mobile device will increase; our software will processes the high signal strength as the in time of the person. When the person walks out, the counter will receive high signal strength again. It indicates that the person is going out the store and counter will count the visitor duration of that customer.
Our counter have auto recording function. We understand that verification of the accuracy rate is very important for most of the retailers. Every recorded video would send back to our server by scheduled time (e.g. every morning 5am). The recorded video would transfer to our server and you could login to the portal and use the recorded video to do the verification manually. We also provide the tools for generate report, so that you could easily generate an accuracy report for each counter and you may want it to send back to your headquarter.
1. Retrieve from our server :-
- a. We will provide you a FTP login detail, directory, etc.
- b. The system will auto generate the file at a specified time everyday.
- c. You can write a script to retrieve it from our server using the login details provided.
2. Pushing the Excel file to your server :-
-
a. You will need to provide us your FTP details such as :-
- i) Username
- ii) Password
- iii) Directory
- b. We will make the configuration to auto generate the Excel file on our server every day/week (depending on the requirement).
- c. We will push the file to your server every day/week (depending on the requirement).
To calculate the dwell time of the customer, As every mobile phone will have the unique MAC ID, we can measure it by analysing the Wi-Fi signal strength profile of the MAC address. If the profile has two peaks that are above a defined signal strength threshold. They are identified as the IN time and the OUT time of the visitor.
For the access the data in the analytic software, you will have 2 options:
A. Use Footfallcam Cloud server (FOC)
- All your counting data will be upload to our server in the hourly basis, and you can registered an account in a given link to access the counting data or view the reporting and analytic.
- Data will be stored permanently in the server, as we understand the data is meaningful used to do the forecasting from the historical year.
- Our system is able to support over wide geographic area across different countries. The central database and the reporting software will be installed at the server at head office. From this server, it will go to each individual camera to get raw data every hour via the internal network, and input it into the central database. This is an automatic system which the computer/server will perform by itself in the background.
- In a case that the store have internet connection, and caused the counter couldn’t upload the data to our server in the hourly basis, all the raw data will still store in the counter. The capacity of the data storage on the counter is 25 years. However, the data will be uploaded once the counter regain its internet connection. (Provided counter power is turned on and running when the counter does not have internet connection)
B. Software install at your own server
If you possess corporate server, you may choose to install the software into your server. The software installed will received new version upgrade and you will be given full access to the software which is having same function as cloud based software. You may go for this option if you have security concern or a large quantity of FootfallCam is installed.
A. Footfallcam device manager
FootfallCam device manager is the control panel on the camera itself. This is mainly use to set up the counter IT or network details ( static IP, DHCP or any other proxy setting) and use to fine tune the counter accuracy by setting the line and etc.
B. Footfallcam Analytic Software
This is where you can view the analytics and the reports. The data will be upload to our server every hour, so you can see the hourly breakdown in the analytic center. We also provide a set of standard report in the analytics Software, weekly report will compile in weekly basis; and daily report will compile in daily basis (which means you can see in the next day). Apart from that, you can also have the following features in our analytics software:
- 1. Account Management - Different users may have different job responsibilities and need to use the FootfallCam Report Manger TM in different ways. Individual user accounts can be setup for your team member, and access rights assigned accordingly.Every user will be assigned a user ID and password, which they will be able to access from any networked location. System administrator will have remote access to the accounts information, modify access rights and disable any account when a team member leaves the company.
2. Email Scheduler- Reports can be scheduled to be sent to the key person (e.g store manager for the store weekly reports, marketing manager for the campaign effectiveness reports, etc.) via email on a regular basis
3. Health Check - A routine system health check is implemented, which check across the whole system to make sure all counters are connected and counting. This health check is usually scheduled to perform daily at a pre-defined time (eg. 12am). An automated email alert will be sent to the person-in-charge detailing any faults found, making this a pro-active yet manageable approach to maintain all the counters across your retail chain. Checking details:- a. Network issue and failed to connect to server
- b. Alert for data is lower/ higher than usual
- c. Counting data and Wi-Fi data upload checking
4. Accuracy Audit - It is important to be able to check that your counters are indeed counting accurately. Accuracy audit allows you to capture a short video clip, do a manual count and cross check it with the system count for this period. A verification report can then be generated, along with the video evidence, and centrally archived for future reference. Accuracy Verification basically is a process of ensuring the accuracy of each single people counter. Fine tuning camera parameter is vital for any single people counter as the accuracy may be affected by the different store environment. Accuracy verification act as a proof for the top management that the camera installed at the particular store has achieved the required counting accuracy to ensure the traffic data is accurate and reliable to be used for the future planning for the store.
5. Data Export and Integration - API are available to import or export data to and from a system. FootfallCam is a fully embedded software module, intended for any environment where store footfall counting is required. Business intelligence (BI) system extracts and analyses footfall data (from FootfallCam central server) together with ePOS data or staff labour hours (from retailer’s ePOS system or staff management system) to produce management report for corporate strategic planning. Ways of Integration:- a. Pull data via API
- b. Pull data from central database
- c. Push data to your FTP server
- d. Download CSV from FootfallCam control panel
6. Centrally Manage All FootfallCam Counters- In the control panel, you will be able to fully manage your FootfallCam counters, assign or edit any configurations remotely. You will be able to setup the branch ID, counter ID, number of counters per branch, counting period, holiday / late night shopping, etc.
- You may register your company at http://footfallcounter.com/Account/RegisterNewCompany.
- When you register, you may set your own username and password.
- After you login to your account at www.footfallcam.com you will direct to counter management page to add your counter.
- You may create the branch for different business unit. And add the counter by using the serial number under each branch.
From the above step, you will only have 1x account to see all your different business units’ data. If you would like to create a user to access each account, you may go to the account management page and set up the email address with the username and password and allocate the manager only accessible to business unit A.
All Footfall Counters come with a Wi-Dongle attached, it’s not an extra option. Using the Wi- fi Dongle allows us to track visitors IP address and determine the visitor duration, cross shopping, turn in rate & returning customers. This is all included in the price of the counter.
Using the Wi fi dongle as long as the counter has power and is connected to server it shall be able to track the Ip address of customer.
This is how it works. The camera do its counting within the camera (this is where the store logins to see the live view and live counting), and every hour, it uploads its count data to our server reporting software (this is where you login to look at the graphs and reports). The camera counts when it sees a change in the background, that is when an object that is foreign to your floor appears, and when it moves crossing the 3 lines.
The camera must have good lighting condition in order to count. When your store is opened, it will naturally be well-lit, and the camera will count in normal condition, achieving the accuracy which is validated. When your store is closed, normally lights would be switched off or dimmed, and during this time you do not want counting anyway, and the camera should be turned off. However, because your stores would close at different times at night (for eg. Some days it closes at 5pm, other days at 8pm). Therefore in order to make sure that the camera does not stop counting when your store is still opened, we keep the camera counting 24hours. And on the reporting software, we’ve setup all your branches opening hours. So for example Bristol store, on Monday to Saturday, we’ll take count data from the camera between 10am – 8pm (on Sunday between 11am -5pm), and for all the other time at night we’ll not take the counts from the camera even though the camera is actually still ‘counting’.
Because we keep the camera turned on 24hr, so during the time your store is closed and the light switched off, what the camera ‘sees’ is not a proper colour image. Imagine it’s a poor quality black and white pixelated image, and with lights from the streets shinning into the store. But as the camera counting is still active, it tries its best to ‘count’. Because the poor quality of the image which keeps flickering, the camera could be tricked into thinking an object has moved. This is absolutely natural in image processing.
Reports and Analytics
The system will calculate the conversion rate of visitors that enter the store and have made a purchase based on the sales data that are imported by the ePoS inside each individual store.
Our marketing effectiveness report shows the customer behaviour and traffic patterns pre-marketing event and post marketing event. Retailers can set the marketing period (e.g. 4 July to 6 July) in the report, and report period for example from 28 June to 13 July, and they will get to see the evaluation of the traffic pattern pre-event ( 28 June to 3 July), during the marketing campaign ( 4 July to 6 July) and Post- event traffic pattern ( 7 July to 13 July).
The figure in the counting reports show only total of “INs”. This is because the total of “INs” would be more critical for a store to compare their sales conversion rate. And the number of In and Out would be roughly the same. Most of the retail stores are using the total of people walk into the store to do the analytic for sales conversion rate and the KPI analysis.
The report can be generated on daily and weekly basis according to the schedule. Apart from that, you could also login to the web-based software anytime to view the reports and download or export the report out.
The data on Daily Report will only be available on the next day, for example, 18th June data will only be available on 19th june. Similiarly, the data on Weekly report will only be available on next week. For example, week 19 data will only be visible from week 20 onwards.
For the Basic Report: store weekly report, company wide weekly report, marketing effectiveness report, store summary report, verification report, health check report
For the optional Extra Report:
- If import sales data will have sales conversion report which provided for store level or company level.
- If import staff data will have staff report.
Sales
Yes, the cloud version is free of charge.
For every installation, Reseller/Customer would required to let Footfallcam team know the details as below:
- 1. Counter serial number.
- 2. Which branch and company the counter belong to.
- 3. When is the installation completed.
The verification report will be completed within one week after received the request from the reseller/customer.
Yes, the server of the system will still continue to work. We could port the software to your local server.
Our system is entitled with 1 year manufacture warranty for hardware. Replacing the equipment will be charged after the warranty period.
We understand your concern about if the company went into liquidation, our source code is store in Escrow service, our software will continue to run under any circumstances and the source code will also available from Escrow service.
For the Retail Chain, the managerial level may want to know.
- Do we have a higher proportion of frequent visitor coming back on Friday evening?
- Is the staff level appropriate in each department of the stores?
- Are we closing the store too late or too earlier, they may want to look at the outside traffic during closing time.
- Does people tends to stay in the shop longer during weekends? How about Christmas?
- What is the anticipated number of people coming into the store over the next 7 days?
- Comparing stores in one region, how was the traffic profile for every store and other metrics like returning customer?
The product is sell as one, including the hardware, software and the server software. We manufacture the hardware and develop the software and firmware ourselves.
520mmX400mmX330mm, approximately 14 KG each box, each box can contain 13 units of FootfallCam.
Yes, we have sold just the counter. We can export the data as CSV format for you to retrieve the data.
Yes, it will. We are using your existing Wifi infrastructure or our compact plug-and-play sensor, we record signals and send them to the cloud. For privacy, every MAC address will be encrypted before it is being sent and stored in the server, preventing unauthorized users from accessing to these data. Because shoppers don’t need to actually connect to your Wi-Fi network or install a mobile app, you can measure their activity without interrupting their shopping experience.
We have a production lead time based on the number of units ordered. The delivery lead time would be approximately between 7-15 days subject to custom clearance after the payment is made.
You may need to provide me your company name and address so that we could make an accurate freight charge quotation for you. If it is using our standard delivery service, it would be free of charge.
Yes, the product costs an one off price. We have an optional support contract which covers the technical support and software upgrades.
No, we do not have.
Each camera need software license for the use of People Counter System. One software license is for one camera and it is charged accordingly. However, our web-based reporting software supports unlimited cameras. It can extract data from multiple cameras and combine data into a group.
Suitability
Our counter would require a network connection and a power supply to operate. If it is mobility counter on bus, you would need to connect up the counter via 3G dongle. You would also need to have a power supply plug for it as the people counter do not have built in battery.
Footfallcam would not be capturing the people’s face. Therefore, it would not count via facial recognition. The counting would be based on the people’s body shape.
Unfortunately, we do not do for the thermal based people counting, as it has some of the limitation as follow:
- The counting accuracy will affected by sudden temperature/heat variations and light change.
- Inability to identify object passing by.
- Not applicable during extremely hot weather which is quite common in Malaysia.
Our system is more advanced and accurate in this aspect as it could eliminate the problem stated above.
Unfortunately, our solution is not optimise for popup stores as the store is an open space and do not have fixed ceiling height.
The people counter can only work accurately in well lighting area. The entrance area where the traffic is counted is needed to be well lighted. It could not work under a dim situation because the resolution would not be high enough for the counter software to work.