CrowdScan’s technology is a unique method to measure crowd density. We don’t need cameras, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or mobile devices to gather accurate and reliable data on crowds.
Our basic service: counting the exact number of people in a certain area - the number of people present in a shopping street or at an event, number of people waiting for a train or metro on a platform and so on. We can measure crowds in areas of all sizes.
Taking it one step further: we analyse the gathered data to get more information about the movements of a crowd.
Based on previous insights and additional data sources we can predict new evolutions and movements.
An integrated total solution in co-creation with the customer, based on specific needs or goals which would make data-driven governance possible or better.
CrowdScan’s innovative solution only uses sensors or nodes, a central gateway to configure the wireless sensor network, low-energy radio waves and cloud servers where all the data is processed and visualized.
Imagine this: you want to measure a crowd in a busy shopping street. We’ll place multiple sensors at both sides of the street and a second at the other end. We put the central gateway within reach of both sensors, in a radius of about 200 meters. This gateway not only configures the wireless sensor network, but also sends results to the servers.
Then, each sensor emits a low power electromagnetic signal at a frequency of 868 MHz. If shoppers are present in the area, the other sensor receives this signal in a weakened form. Research has shown that this reduced signal due to the presence of people is linear with the number of people there.
Meaning: if a lot of people are present in the shopping street the signal will be severely reduced in comparison to the reference measurement (which will be executed before the actual measurements).
After the measurements all the data are pushed into our analytics and algorithms to provide the right insights and predictions.
CrowdScan is the first and only company to use sensors and radio frequencies to measure crowd density. What makes this innovative method so different from other existing crowd measurement techniques is the wide range of application possibilities. We can realize all this thanks to the speed of our measurements, the specific zoning options, the low cost technology and insensitivity to weather conditions.
Because we don’t use devices like cameras or mobiles nor WiFi or Bluetooth our technology is completely privacy-friendly.
The wireless sensor network provides a new measurement every 50 ms which results in real-time data that give you the opportunity to make faster and more efficient decisions. In addition, our solution is an open data system which allows you to integrate our method with other measurement technology and datasets.
An intuitive crowd density map of different subregions is processed real-time and will provide you with detailed insights to more efficiently manage crowds in specific areas.
CrowdScan is a spin-off of Imec and the University of Antwerp that has developed a solution for measuring crowd density in real-time using a wireless sensor network. This technology is based on six years of research at the University of Antwerp and Imec.
