Capacity planning is crucial to safely and efficiently run large spaces such as shopping centres, airports, train stations, or other venues. It is critical to monitor and manage people flow to ensure optimal safety, energy efficiency and resource allocation for such buildings and areas. There are several use cases, for example, where operators must know how many people are inside a venue in order to comply with maximum occupancy safety rules and emergency evacuation procedures. Monitoring traffic flow is also key to plan and implement strategies to avoid accidents in transport hubs. Similarly, in a busy airport, a key aspect for management is to allocate staff accordingly and to better manage the security lines.
Video camera based people counting and tracking systems, apart from being expensive, do not respect the privacy of the occupants in a given space. This takes particular importance with the surge in privacy laws, especially the GDPR in Europe. Other currently available privacy-friendly alternatives for people counting (such as those based on Active Infrared, WiFi Tracking, Thermal or Ultrasonic sensors) are not accurate, reliable or mobile. Therefore, there is an urgent need in the market for a privacy-friendly, accurate and mobile people counting and tracking solution. To address this need, iniVation is developing PrivateTrack – a privacy-friendly and mobile solution that does not compromise on accuracy.
The objectives for iniVation during this Phase 1 period were to define a minimum viable product, establish a feasible product development plan, analyse the opportunities and regulatory requirements prior to bringing the product to the market.
