Years ago, at a different institution, to solve this same problem I bought an infared people counter. It's similar to what many retail places use to see how many people are coming into their stores. It simply plugs in and shines an infared beam across the doorway and a couple feet off the ground. Whenever that beam is interruped by a person crossing, it registers a count. When they leave, it registers another count. So, dividing by two gets you really close to the amount of people who came in.
It's imperfect, of course. If two people cross at nearly the same time, they may be counted as one. And staff counts as much as visitors, so you may want to take that into account.
That said, if you need a good estimate, this gets you very close at minimal cost and effort.
I did a quick Google search and came up with this:
https://peoplecounting.pro/us/product/smart-counter-plus-with-reset-key-us/. Anything similar should do the trick.
Best of luck!
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George Garner (he/him/his)
Assistant Director & Curator
Civil Rights Heritage Center - Indiana University, South Bend
South Bend IN
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-20-2022 01:05 PM
From: Mary Batterson
Subject: Counting visitors to an exhibit that is included with admission
Hello-
We have a temporary exhibit at our Museum that does not require an upcharge (i.e. it is included with a general admission ticket). We would like to track how many guests visit the exhibit. What options have worked well to accomplish this task, short of having a staff person at the entrance to physically count the number of guests? We've considered installing some kind of temporary, electronic reader, but do not have experience in this area. Thank you for any suggestions you can offer.
~Mary
| Mary Batterson | Corporate Partnerships Officer The Museum of Flight 9404 East Marginal Way S Seattle, WA 98108 Work: +1 (206) 764-5879 www.museumofflight.org |