Glossary of terms

Access Control|System|secure Entry|Physical facility| Computer Based Information System

Access control - refers to a system that allows secure entry to specific areas and resources in a given physical facility or computer-based information system.

1Access Control Systems

Access Control|System|secure Entry|Physical facility| Computer Based Information System

Accuracy - used within the field of people counting to describe both how well a people counting device picks up and counts targets under different environmental conditions and varying volumes of pedestrian traffic, and how well bi-directional footfall counters balance between 'in' counts and 'out' counts.

2The Importance of People Counting Accuracy

Accuracy

Anonymise - to carry out a process or organise in such a way as to preserve anonymity. A process often required when using video based counters in order to protect the identity of people passing through a count zone. This functionality has been built into the Brickstream 2200 people counters that Axiomatic use.Anonymise|Anonymity|Video Based Counters|Video Counters|Protect Identity|Count Zone|Brickstream 2200|People Counters|Axiomatic

Axiomatic Technology Ltd. - technical development company established in 1994 specialising in hardware and software development of footfall technology, occupancy management and motion control systems.

Beam Counter - a basic form of break-beam people counting technology using either a single or dual infra-red beams and a reflector or receiver to monitor visitor counts as people break the infra-red beam(s). Such counters are suitable for monitoring basic footfall trends, but their accuracy depends on the environment where they are mounted, the width of the entrance and the volume of traffic. As they will not count two people side-by-side, such counters should not be used for occupancy counting or event management.

Behaviour IQTM|Patented Software|Brickstream|People Counters|Analysing Customer Behaviour

Behaviour IQTM - is the patented software used by Brickstream on their people counters to offer the most sophisticated tool available for quantifying and analysing customer behaviour.

Behaviour IQTM|Patented Software|Brickstream|People Counters|Analysing Customer Behaviour

Bi-directional footfall|People Counter|Footfall

Bi-directional footfall – the ability for a people counter device to count in both directions.

Bi-directional footfall|People Counter|Footfall

Brickstream - American technology company and hardware supplier, based in Atlanta, who have developed the Brickstream 2200 dual-view 3D video counter offering unrivalled levels of accurate customer counting, tracking and queue counting. Brickstream work closely in partnership with Axiomatic, to ensure that our people counting solutions meet the requirements of different markets.

Brickstream 2200- Stereoscopic people counting device capable of advanced customer tracking. The dual lenses allow the unit to see both the height and shape of the count targets, offering high levels of count accuracy, and the ability to differentiate between adult and child counts based on the height of the target. Although configurable, such algorithms help to offer an estimate based on fixed assumptions, and therefore give an idea of trends only, given the height variations of adults and children within a population.

4Brickstream 2200 Stereo Vision footfall counter

Building Management System - a Building Management System (BMS) is a computer-based control system installed in buildings that controls and monitors the building’s mechanical and electrical equipment such as ventilation, lighting, power systems, fire systems, and security systems. A BMS consists of software and hardware. People counting technology can be used to help a Building Management system run more efficiently by helping to control energy use based on the occupancy of specific zones within the building.

5Intelligent (IBIS) Building Control System

CAT5/6|Standard Network Cabling|Data Connection

CAT5/6 – describes the standard cabling requirement for connecting counters to a network in order to poll data to a central location.

CAT5/6|Standard Network Cabling|Data Connection

Consistency - refers to the ability of a footfall counter to produce footfall data with the same level of accuracy under different environmental conditions and volumes of visitor traffic.

Conversion Rate - refers to either the number of people passing a retail outlet who enter the store or the number of people who have made a purchase compared to the footfall in a given period. The first is shown as a ratio or percentage from the equation: Passing Traffic / Footfall, the second is shown as a ratio or percentage from the equation: Sales Transactions / Total Footfall.

Conversion Rate - refers to either the number of people passing a retail outlet who enter the store or the number of people who have made a purchase compared to the footfall in a given period. The first is shown as a ratio or percentage from the equation: Passing Traffic / Footfall, the second is shown as a ratio or percentage from the equation: Sales Transactions / Total Footfall.

Count Lines|Thermal Counter|Video People Counter|Customer Movement|Counting Zone

Count Lines- the lines that are configured encapsulating an entrance or exit to maximise the tracking time for a thermal or video people counter, whilst minimising any errors created to objects, merchandise or customer movement within the counting zone.

6 Count Line Configuration for Footfall Counter

Count Lines|Thermal Counter|Video People Counter|Customer Movement|Counting Zone

Counting Zone|Footfall|Footfall counter|footfall|Pedestrian Entrance

Counting Zone- the specific area seen by a footfall counter, or the total area encapsulated by footfall counters covering each pedestrian entrance.

7People Counting Zone AREA ICON

Counting Zone|Footfall|Footfall counter|footfall|Pedestrian Entrance

Crowd Control|Group Movement|Crowd Disasters

Crowd Control - crowd control is the restriction or limitation of group behaviour. Crowd control may be part of a crowd management plan, or occur as an unplanned reaction to a group problem. It can include extreme measures to enforce order, such as the use of force, arrest, or threat of personal injury. It may employ barriers that alter the space available for occupancy and patterns of group movement. Inappropriate or poorly managed control procedures have precipitated crowd incidents rather than preventing them. For example, police reacting to a group of unruly persons at a rock concert, herded spectators into areas where there were no means of egress. (ref: THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF CROWD DISASTERS, John J. Fruin, Ph.D., P.E. 1993)

Crowd Control|Group Movement|Crowd Disasters

Crowd Management- crowd management is defined as the systematic planning for, and supervision of, the orderly movement and assembly of people. Crowd management involves the assessment of the people handling capabilities of a space prior to use. It includes evaluation of projected levels of occupancy, adequacy of means of ingress and egress, processing procedures such as ticket collection, and expected types of activities and group behaviour. (ref: THE CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF CROWD DISASTERS, John J. Fruin, Ph.D., P.E. 1993)

8Crowd Management Outside Wembley Stadium for a music concert

Customer Insight|Analysis Information|Footfall|Data Insight

Customer Insight - is the collection, deployment and analysis of information that allows a business to acquire, develop, understand and retain their customer base. Footfall offers a key piece of data to allow businesses greater insight into customer behaviour.

Customer Insight|Analysis Information|Footfall|Data Insight

Customer Conversion - refers to either the number of people passing a retail outlet who enter the store or the number of people who have made a purchase compared to the footfall in a given period. The first is shown as a ratio or percentage from the equation: Passing Traffic / Footfall, the second is shown as a ratio or percentage from the equation: Sales Transactions / Total Footfall.

Customer Service- is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation. Turban et al. (2002). From the point of view of an overall sales process engineering effort, customer service plays an important role in an organization's ability to generate income and revenue. As such customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic business improvement. A customer service experience can change the entire perception a customer has of the organization. Using people counters will help a business improve the customer experience by ensuring the right number of staff and tills are available during peaks in footfall traffic.

Dwell Time- refers to the amount of time a person spends in a specific zone or site. Average dwell time can be calculated using bi-directional footfall counts and calculations based on the average occupancy over a specific time period. Using customer tracking technology more detailed dwell time analysis can be gained for specific visitors.

Event Counting- monitoring the number of patrons at a specific event, in order to gauge interest in the event, or to assist with health & safety and crowd management.

Event Management,Systematic Planning,Event and Crowd behaviour,Event Management,Live Occupancy levels,Clear Signage,Ingress and Egress,Staffing levels,Communicated Emergency Evacuation Procedures

Event Management-The use of systematic planning and provision for, along with supervision of, factors that may affect an event and crowd behaviour. Good event management involves the assessment of the people handling capabilities of a space prior to use. It includes evaluation of projected and live occupancy levels, displays of clear signage showing areas of ingress and egress, suitable staffing levels and clearly defined and communicated emergency evacuation procedures.

Event Management,Systematic Planning,Event and Crowd behaviour,Event Management,Live Occupancy levels,Clear Signage,Ingress and Egress,Staffing levels,Communicated Emergency Evacuation Procedures

9Live Occupancy Counting at Sensation Event at The O2 London

Flow accuracy,People Counter, Counting,Counting Footfall

Flow accuracy- the accuracy of a people counter counting footfall in a single direction.

Flow accuracy,People Counter, Counting,Counting Footfall

Footfall- a specialised term referring to the number of people who go into a shop, business, site or space in a particular period of time. Footfall is an important indicator of how successful a company's advertising is at bringing people into its shops.

Footfall Comparison- allows users to compare footfall counts from different sites or time periods in order to assess historical footfall trends, or compare the performance of different sites over time.

10RECAP Multi-site Footfall comparison

Footfall Weather map- An index or graphical map of footfall trends throughout a country based on data from multiple people counters across stores, shopping and town centres. A footfall index can help to show how one region performs against another, and how a specific site compares to local or national footfall trends.

Free Flow Event- an event where fans can move freely between one zone and another often resulting in the potential for over-crowding where use of people counters to monitor visitor flow rates can help to predict the expected time when a zone will reach maximum occupancy, helping the event control team to put flow management procedures into place before over-crowding occurs.

Group Counting – an advanced people counting algorithm that can determine the potential relationship between visitors based on their proximity to one another and the path they take through the counting zone.

Heat map- a customer heat map shows the most popular paths taken by visitors to a site, and can be used to highlight the points where most customers dwell. This can help identify key product locations within a retail store, and prime locations within a shopping or town centre.

11Activity Heat Map from Irisys Thermal Counter

Height to Width table– a document showing the relative widths a specific overhead people counter will see, in order to count accurately, dependent upon its mounting height.

IRC3000- this model number represents the most up-to-date range of accurate thermal counters from the UK manufacturer Irisys.

12IRC3020 Thermal People Counter

Irisys- UK based manufacturer of thermal counting and high-resolution thermal cameras. Established in 1996 Infrared Integrated Systems Ltd (Irisys) designs and manufactures thermal detectors and systems which are used for people counting, queue management, thermal imaging, security and healthcare applications.

Live Occupancy Counting- Use of electronic people counters in order to provide a live occupancy and visitor flow rate display showing data within 5 seconds of targets passing through a counting zone.

13Live Event Occupancy Display

Manual Counting – Using staff to count the number of visitors into a site.

Manual Count Survey – A process where trained staff visit a shopping centre, town or specific venue in order to manually count the number of people. Such studies offer the ability to break down footfall into demographic groups highlighting the age, sex and ethnicity of footfall traffic. However, such studies are labour intensive, expensive, and offer only a brief snapshot of footfall traffic and customer behaviour within a specific location. The results of such studies are highly dependent on the skills and concentration of those conducting the counting survey, and as such are often difficult to verify.

14Manual counting device

Marketing Performance Measurement and Management (MPM) -is a term used by marketing professionals to describe the analysis and improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing. This is accomplished by focus on the alignment of marketing activities, strategies, and metrics with business goals. It involves the creation of a metrics framework to monitor marketing performance, and then develop and utilize marketing dashboards to manage marketing performance. It focuses on measuring, managing, and analysing marketing performance to maximize effectiveness and optimize the return of investment (ROI) of marketing. Three elements play a critical role in managing marketing performance—data, analytics, and metrics. Although brand recognition may form part of the purpose of marketing, for a retailer, an increase in sales and profits provides the key ROI. However, an increase in sales transactions alone does not give a full picture of the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. If sales transaction have gone up by 10%, but store footfall has actually increased by 100%, then the campaign has been highly effective, but other factors have reduced the potential ROI. Thus the use of data from people counters to add footfall metrics as part of the MPM is key to understand the true effectiveness of a marketing campaign.

Missed Opportunities- refers to those potential customers who visit a store but leave without making a purchase due to excessive queue length or queue waiting times, lack of available staff, pricing or product availability.

Mobile Tracking- the ability to track the unique short range signals from mobile phones in order to anonymously track the location of a specific user. This technology can be used to create a heat-map of a shop. shopping or town centre.

Occupancy- the total number of people in a specific space, calculated by the total number of 'in' counts minus the total number of 'out' counts at any given time, or by the use of Brickstream Zone tracking technology that can analyse the total number of people within view of a Brickstream 2200 counter (up to a maximum area of 6 square metres per counter dependant on the mounting height of the equipment.)

Occupancy Accuracy- occupancy accuracy is achieved by using overhead counters with accurate and consistent flow-rate accuracy. Occupancy accuracy can be subject to cumulative errors due to slight inaccuracies inherent in all existing people counting technologies. Such inaccuracies are exacerbated by low maximum capacities combined with short average dwell times and high footfall, and high volume traffic flow rates. In order to manage this Axiomatic carefully monitor the accuracy of the counters under different conditions to apply the relevant factors to 'in' or 'out' counts in order to balance potential errors, and are able to inform clients of the expected tolerance of a system to ensure that decisions are made based on understood data.

Occupancy Management- the use of available information from visual, CCTV and people counting equipment to assist with decisions and the implementation of processes to help control the visitor flow and occupancy of venues with a predefined maximum capacity.

Over-counting– the tendency for some people counting technology to count more people than are actually passing due to confusion caused by environmental conditions, or by insufficient configuration, or unexpected staff or customer behaviour within the counting zone.

Passenger Counting- the ability to use people counters to monitor footfall on public vehicles, or counting passengers at transport hubs such as bus / train stations or airports.

Passing Traffic - the number of people passing a site, or store, who do not enter. This type of footfall data is often used to help set the rents for commercial retail or restaurant properties. By using people counters to monitor passing traffic it is possible to gain an insight into how signage, advertising and window displays affect conversion rates from passing traffic to footfall.

People Counter – ageneral term for any electronic device for monitoring visitor numbers.

People Counting– the process through which footfall data on visitors and customers is collected.

Power Hours– Points during each day when retail footfall is at its maximum, offering the greatest potential to maximise sales and profits.

Power over Ethernet or PoE technology describes a system to pass electrical power safely, along with data, on CAT5 or CAT6 Ethernet cabling. The Q-Scan Twincomm Counters, Irisys Thermal Counters and Brickstream 2200 all support PoE, however the IRC3000 range of counters require a specific passive PoE supply and must not be connected to an active PoE switch port.

Q-Scan- the brand name for a range of reliable, easy to set-up beam counters, manufactured and distributed by Axiomatic Technology.

Q-Scan Software– basic software which can be purchased along with the Q-Scan Unicomm and Q-Scan Twincomm Beam counters, to allow a user to manually connect to the device memory (using a laptop and USB cable) and download historical counts into a CSV file which can be manually imported into Excel to generate footfall spread-sheets.

Queue Management- the ability to control queue lengths, in order to improve customer service and the customer experience. Queue monitoring systems can help to identify queue wait times, queue lengths and whether specific tills are manned or inactive. A queue management system can offer both live information to help store managers deploy existing staff with greater efficiency, and historical data to help plan staff deployment based on peak times when potential customers may be otherwise lost due to excessive queue lengths.

15Brickstream Queue Management

Real-Time Counting– the ability to display live footfall or occupancy counts within 5 seconds of the target having passed through a count-zone.

RECAP– the trademark name for Axiomatic Technologies people counting reporting platform, which is split into different levels for the requirements of different customers. The RECAP service communicates with each people counter to bring data back to a central server, and generates a CSV log. RECAP Excel automatically generates daily, weekly and monthly Excel spread sheet reports on the base server, which can be accessed across a corporate network. RECAP BMS automatically polls the data into a corporate business management system in order for a client to compare footfall data with other metrics on an existing reporting platform. RECAP SQL Web-based reporting offers a sophisticated, password protected Internet based platform for Axiomatic customers to view their footfall reports, and query footfall data in order to create the people counting report that covers the sites, periods and sales data that they wish to analyse.

Refining Opening Hours– The process of studying customer traffic & sales transactions, compared to staffing costs and business overheads associated with a site being open, to identify the times when it becomes profitable to keep a site open, and when it is best to close due to lack of potential customers. Assessing footfall and passing traffic gives a more accurate measure for determining opening hours and maximising sales.

Remote Monitoring– A service offered by Axiomatic to help check that our clients people counters are connected to the network, and are functioning correctly. This process automatically flags any correction errors and can highlight specific accuracy problems. Remote access to people counters also allow Axiomatic engineers to log into a counter see check the view of the count zone, and manually assess the accuracy of a counter.

Retail Footfall Index – a regional and national comparison of footfall statistics from a number of sites across a country.

Retail Metrics – Data which can be analysed and combined to give a better picture of customer behaviour, marketing effectiveness and store and staff performance. Footfall data provides a key metric in helping retailers understand the strengths of their business and where improvements can be made.

Retail Systems– The technology and processes available to, and employed by retailers in order to make their businesses more efficient. People counting systems form an integral part of any retail system to provide a metric against which other results can be evaluated.

Sales Conversation (ratio)– the number of people who actually make a purchase in a retail store, compared to the total amount of visitors to a store - measuring the share of visitors against buyers by site - shown as a ratio or percentage from the equation: Sales Transactions / Total Footfall.

Shopper Tracking– The ability to highlight the paths of individual customers, or build up a customer heat-map showing the most commonly used paths throughout a retail space and the key areas of interest where customers spend the most time browsing.

SQL database (MS SQL, MySQL)- SQL is 'structured query language' and is an industry-standard database language. A database is usually used to store the people count data in a way that can be queried so that questions such as "how many people entered such-a-zone last week?" or “how does the footfall at one site compare to another?’ Such flexible structure allows users to import, compare, query and report on multiple metrics. There are two main variants of a SQL database: MySQL and Microsoft SQL. There are other variants from Oracle, and other software vendors.

Staff Planning- is a continuous process of shaping the staff profile to ensure that it is capable of delivering business objectives and maintaining a high level of customer service to maximise sales conversion ratios in retail, and customer satisfaction in service industries. The use of footfall data to help predict peaks and troughs in customer numbers can help a business reduce staff costs during periods of low footfall, and maximise customer service and profit during periods of high footfall where customer service may suffer due to under-staffing.

16Staff roster schedule

Stereoscopic- having two lenses to facilitate the ability to create 3-dimensional vision creating an image with both depth and shape. Stereoscopic video counters like the Brickstream 2200 use this ability to achieve more accurate people counting.

Tailgating- describes the behaviour of one person directly following another through a turnstile or security gate. An electronic tailgate monitor can instigate a tailgate alarm when two people try to pass through a security gate simultaneously. The Irisys Thermal counter can be deployed as tailgate detection system and can be integrated with building security systems to ensure that even when security staff are distracted, non-accredited visitors cannot pass into secure areas without detection.

17Tailgate Control

Tally Counter- a basic manual hand-held counter where a member of staff clicks every time a person passes. Such counters are labour intensive and subject to significant inaccuracies due to limited concentration spans, distractions and a lack of understanding of the importance of the counts. Often used by pubs and nightclubs many councils and licensing authorities are now insisting that the capacity of venues is managed with more reliable and auditable technology.

18Electronic Manual Tally Counter

Thermal Counter- a specific type of counter using proprietary technology, manufactured by Irisys. This type of counter is mounted on the ceiling above an entrance and counts people by monitoring the difference between the background temperature and the temperature of count targets passing underneath. As such, unlike many standard video counters, the IRC3010 thermal counter is not affected by ambient light. These counters are commonly used within retail stores, shopping centres, art galleries, visitor centres and libraries. Irisys also produce a version of the counter which is capable of monitoring tailgating through turnstiles to assist with building security management.

19Irisys IRC3020 Thermal People Counter

Tolerance- the agreed, accepted and identified accuracy of a counting system once installed.

Traffic Density– The number of people passing under a people counter, within a specific space at any one time.

Traffic Patterns- the historical peaks and troughs in footfall rates.

Under-counting– the propensity for some people counting devices to count fewer people than are actually passing through the counting zone. This is a specific weakness where Beam Counters are used across a wide entrance. However, both thermal and video counters can also be subject to under-counting when traffic density reaches extremely high levels. Consistent under counting can be compensated for by adding a factor to each set of counts e.g. daily footfall + 10%.

Velocity Filter - a people counting algorithm that can define which targets are counted based on speed of transit through the counting zone.

Video Counter- a people counting device based on a standard video lens. Usually, analysing footfall targets through black and white images as these offer greater levels of contrast. The majority of video based counting systems are subject to changes in ambient light and shadow which can create problems in accuracy or data consistency. People counting systems based on standard CCTV systems are usually a bolt-on to the CCTV package and as such rarely offer accurate counts, especially where the cameras have not been positioned directly above an entrance for this purpose. CCTV cameras are usually positioned to see people’s faces, and are therefore subject to occlusion when tasked with counting. Unlike many video based counting systems, the Brickstream counter overcomes any problems with ambient light and shadow and occlusion by using dual-lenses and sophisticated people counting algorithms to achieve high count accuracy.

Video Validation– a facility enabled on the Irisys Dual-View IRC3030 thermal people counter and the Brickstream 2200 video counter which enables recording of a video stream alongside footfall data, allowing the video, stored count data and diagnostic information to be polled via a single IP data stream.

Weather Effect – the effect that weather has on the footfall trends of various sites, depending on their; purpose, stock and location. For instance on a rainy day footfall may increase at a sheltered Shopping Centre, or for Outdoor Leisure stores, or a shop selling umbrellas, but fall for normal high street stores. The effects on footfall of good or inclement weather upon a site will vary depending on the nature and location of that site. By assessing the affect weather on footfall managers can estimate the quantitative traffic response and make suitable staffing adjustments.

Workforce Management– scheduling staff hours to maximise efficient use of office space, especially where hot-desking and flexible workspaces and break-out areas are in use. Alternatively this phrase can relate to scheduling staff to maximise sales conversion in a retail arena.

Workplace Management- People counters can be deployed to assist with workspace management by showing peaks and troughs in office occupancy throughout each day, week and month to show the percentage use of an office space, against its designated capacity. Most office space management analysis is either taken from anecdotal evidence, where each department may have a vested interest in protecting their space and reporting over-use, or on manual count which are both labour intensive and give only a snapshot of the actual level of use. As the cost of running a single office workstation is estimated at £7,000 per annum, many organisations look to consolidate space. People counters offer an objective, consistent and clear overview across time to provide solid data to efficiently manage desk space and inform business decisions with regards to consolidation or expansion of premises.

20Office Workplace Management

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