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Hub for Crossdisciplinary Learning
Hub for Crossdisciplinary Learning

Photo: UHH/von Wieding

Hub for Crossdisciplinary Learning

3D-Sensor-supported visitor census at the canteen Studierendenhaus

 In the course of the student research project, we have installed 3D-sensors, in order to conduct a visitor census there. The sensors have been installed at the ceiling (see picture) and thus cover the area below them. If a person passes that area he or she will automatically be recorded by the sensor. As the video or image files will not be saved, our census is compliant with data privacy.

Hardware well positioned

In order to ensure that a visitor census will deliver the desired results, the arrangement of the whole required hardware-system must be carefully designed. The 3D-sensors have to be placed at the entrances and exits of the viewed premises - in our case the premises of the canteen. Afterwards the sensors have to be integrated in a network, so that all data are at a common place and can be combined for the counting analysis. This network will be provided by a central router to which every sensor is connected via a LAN-wire. The network also contains a „Raspberry Pi“, a kind of mini-computer, which will process and analyze the counting data. Every sensor will send its collected data directly and automatically to this „Raspberry Pi“. A corresponding interface has been programed.

For a better flow in the future

The data collected at the canteen Studierendenhaus can and shall be used in a number of ways. At the beginning, they may provide a basis for simple analysis, e. g. chronological sequences of visitor numbers or the determination of dwell time. Furthermore, it can be analyzed how many persons stay in one room at a certain point in time, if its entrances and exits are fully covered by sensors. In our student research project, we will focus on the conduct of queue analysis in order to create a model of the queuing at the cash desks based on the collected data. As a result of these analysis, we will determine the optimale number of cash desks which need to be provided for any possible number of visitors.

A (live-)display of the processed data as well as the corresponding data analysis shall be facilitated by a web-application which is still to be developed.

Student research group

  • Niklas Büch
  • Joshua Falke

Mentor

  • Prof. Dr. habil. Knut Haase

Visitor census with a 3D Sensor