Abstract
|
|
Observing the number of shoppers in an area can prove useful to local merchants for the purpose of promoting the area to tourists and other possible merchants. This project uses a webcam to count the number of shoppers appearing at the Piazza San Babila in Milan, Italy.
|
Introduction
|
|
The Piazza San Babila is a well know tourist attraction in the area with shops lining the streets. Many of the shoppers who visit the area are tourists, and by using the webcam this project seeks to count the number of shoppers recorded to measure the shopping activity in the area.
|
Methods
|
|
A shopper is defined as one seen carrying shopping bags, or one seen entering or exiting a store. A shopping (tourist) vehicle is defined as a bus or taxi. The webcam was monitored over three weeks during various times, capturing 269 images in two minute intervals. Results appear in the diagram below.
|
Results
|
|
Determining whether or not a person is actually a tourist turned out to be much harder than expected. It was shown that tourism does have a significant effect on traffic in the area, but exactly how significant the effect was proved difficult to ascertain.
|
Privacy
|
|
The quality of images from the camera (or lack thereof) makes it nearly impossible to identify an individual based on their facial features, though such attributes as height, weight, and clothing are easy to observe. Using this information, a stalker or competing store could monitor customers.
|
References
|
|
Camera: https://www.imb.it/sanbabilawebcam.htm
Project Paper (PDF)
|
