SKIA: The People Flow Solution Using LiDAR | Nikkei Research Inc.

A novel way of measuring people flow that helps increase visitors to stores or strengthens engagement in offices

SKIA is a people flow measuring solution that uses LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a widely adopted technology in autonomous vehicles.

How it works

LiDAR uses safe, invisible to human eye, light pulses to detect and measure distances of the surrounding environment, which outputs people and objects as point cloud data.
Our solution can categorize people and furniture or such and record the movements of each person. Unlike surveillance cameras, it does not intrude the people's privacy, since it does not collect people's faces or similar identities as pictures or videos.

Comparing LiDAR and other devices

The analysis technology is based on joint research with Professor Mihoko Niitsuma Laboratory of Chuo University. It can measure, visualize, and analyze the movements or crowdedness of the space.

Read the story behind our development (link to Chuo University's Private-Academic-Public Collaborations site).
https://plus-c.chuo-u.ac.jp/collaboration/1724/

Introducing a new people flow measurement

Digitalization is necessary for increasing the number of visitors to a facility or enhancing engagements in offices or public open spaces.

What is digitalization in facilities?

Integrate, digitalize, numerate the information collected subjectively by each location, and share across the team members as unbiased data, so everyone can proceed in resolving issues or engage in initiatives as one, truly with their heart.

We tackle these business issues

• Increase the number of customers and improve sales revenue of a store/facility
• Optimize the layout and staff distribution of a store
• Check the effectiveness of campaigns and events

Notable Feature

1. Visualize the store's attractiveness or the effectiveness of campaigns

• Support store operations based on real data, observed number of customers and behaviors, and not by hunch or individual experiences.
• Check the effectiveness of events and campaigns, and optimize shelvings and staff distribution.
• Efficient human resource allocation and motivating employees.

2. Extract business issues for strengthening engagement of facilities or open public spaces

• Measure the people flow in facilities or open public spaces and understand the usage status.
• Plan actionable measures for increasing the time spent or guiding the people to flow into stores with behavioral and spatial usage data.

3. Efficient usage of office spaces, improving communication in a company

• Collect data for re-thinking the office, regarding the shift to a hybrid workstyle such as work-at-home.
• Visualize the redundant/short spaces in the office and optimize the layout and function.
• Analyze the employees' behavior or crowdedness inside the office and estimate the reasons for communication faults or plan on how to improve engagement.

Five “NO”s for safe and secure measurement

1. NO personal information is collected. No worries about privacy violations.
2. NO hassle of implementation. Just set it up in the corner of the room and instantly start the observation.
3. NO interference with the employees and customers. Silent, invisible light pulses during measurement.
4. NO significant differences with the actual condition. Detects and measures positions and movements accurately.
5. NO consideration is needed for the surveying environment. Capable in any weather, night, outdoor, rain, 24/7.

Use Cases