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Basics

note

This page has been automatically translated and has not been reviewed in detail yet. Therefore, the translation might not be completely accurate.

The primary purpose of the Heatmap module/feature is to count people in enclosed areas in reality (hereafter referred to as “rooms”).

To achieve this goal:

  • In reality, there will be cameras in operation at every entrance/exit/access to the corresponding rooms, which count all incoming and outgoing people
  • The cameras must be connected accordingly in NeuroomNet and the rooms must be configured accordingly with assignment to the cameras

Cameras and connection to NeuroomNet​

The following cameras are currently supported by NeuroomNet for people counting (possibly also related ones with the same API):

  • Xovis PC2
  • Xovis PC2R (newer model)

Note: In the context of this documentation, we use the terms “camera” and “sensor” interchangeably. The documentation for the cameras differentiates between these terms (strictly speaking, a sensor contains two integrated cameras).

The above cameras support different modes and counting options. Of the given (counting) options, NeuroomNet uses the following:

  • The cameras in the real world need to be mounted somewhere above the entrances (ceiling, hanging or similar) so that they look down
  • The cameras are configured accordingly in which field of vision is counted and which direction of movement corresponds to incoming people and which direction of movement corresponds to outgoing people
  • The cameras each have a so-called forward counter and a so-called backward counter
    • Each incoming human increases the forward counter by 1
    • Each outgoing person increases the down counter by 1
    • These counters within the cameras are normally never reset, but their numbers continue to grow
  • If certain requirements are met, the cameras can also be interconnected to form zones in the Xovis camera configuration software with a representative master camera, which counts incoming and outgoing people for the interconnected cameras. In such a case, NeuroomNet can then communicate with the respective master camera (“Multiple Cameras combined” flag in the Setup module).
  • NeuroomNet polls the cameras at a specified time interval (default and minimum is once per minute) and thereby obtains the current values of the respective up and down counters

The cameras are represented in NeuroomNet as components from the provider “Heatmap”. NeuroomNet internally stores the current (i.e. last polled) values from the up and down counters for the cameras/components, so that NeuroomNet can determine after each new poll how many people were incoming and outgoing.

Variables for rooms and cameras​

In order for people to actually be counted and/or corresponding numbers to be usable for display or use in modules such as script blocks, dashboards and statistics, (global NeuroomNet) variables must be created, including assignments to cameras.

  1. For each room you create a variable of type Number and usually you assign these variables to a NeuroomNet group using the "Counter" field (see Setup module).
  2. Cameras can be assigned to these variables so that the variable automatically contains the current count of the people in the room (see Setup module).

The next chapter presents the user interfaces for setting up the people counting functionality.