CAM-506
One car unloading at the door and the queue growing behind it
Seven in the evening, arrivals hour. Under the canopy a car is stopped and unloading: the valet is at the driver’s door and the guest is already out with her case. Another saloon waits behind it, and a taxi closes the line further up the street. At the left-hand kerb an SUV stands still and another manoeuvres to leave. At the entrance, the doorman waits by his lectern. IRIS counts vehicles: how many come in, how long each one occupies the drop-off spot, how many are waiting their turn and how long the last one waits.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognises in this scene
- car waiting its turn
- car stopped and unloading
- valet attending the car
- guest getting out with a case
- taxi at the back of the line
- SUV waiting at the kerb
- SUV manoeuvring to leave
- doorman at the entrance lectern
What this camera gives back
Nobody gets an alert here. Here you get numbers.
- 412+38Vehicles that came in today
- 1Vehicles in the drop-off area
- 4Vehicles waiting their turn
- 4 min 20 sAverage time stopped at the door
- 7 minWait for the last car in line
- 19:00Busiest arrival hour
The figures on this screen are an example from the illustration, not any client's measurement.
How the counting works
Counting is not something you ask for. You draw a line.
Two lines are drawn across the driveway: one at the top, where cars come in, and one at the bottom, where they leave. Cross the first and you are added; cross the second and you are taken off. And two areas are painted on the paving: the one at the door, which says how long each car occupies the drop-off spot, and the one behind, which says how many are waiting their turn. Asking is for finding. Counting is for measuring. And they are not done the same way: a line cannot be described in a sentence, it has to be drawn, and that is why the figure always comes out the same and can be checked.
- line where vehicles come in · Counting line
- line where vehicles leave · Counting line
- drop-off area in front of the door · Dwell zone
- waiting area for the queue · Dwell zone
And also, one rule
You decide once. IRIS applies it always.
If
there are more than four vehicles in the waiting area, or one has spent more than ten minutes in the drop-off area
Then
- alerts the entrance post with the camera and the time
- saves the video from the moment the first car stopped at the door
- adds the episode to the day’s tally, so you learn at which hours the entrance falls short
The instruction that set it up«Tell me when there are more than four cars waiting at the door, or when one has been parked in the drop-off spot for more than ten minutes.»
What changes
What changes for the manager and the front desk
Arrival is the hotel’s first impression, and it happens on the pavement. The entrance is as wide as it is: if only one car fits at a time, everything depends on how long it stays there. With the number of vehicles per hour and the time each one takes, you know how many valets you need at seven in the evening and how many at eleven in the morning, and that is a payroll decision, not a hunch. The limit: IRIS counts the car that crosses the line, which is why the line is drawn where the lane takes one vehicle at a time, not in the middle of the forecourt. And what is watched is the entrance, never the inside of the cars nor the private areas of the hotel.
What people usually ask
Is this figure certified?
No, and we do not claim it. The certification we hold is for counting people, and what is counted here is cars: calling this figure certified would be claiming something that is not true. The figure is repeatable, because the line is always drawn in the same place and the video is kept, so anyone can count it again by hand and check it. That much we do claim.
Does IRIS read number plates from this camera?
No. This camera counts vehicles: how many come in, how many go out and how long they stay. It does not know whose car is whose, and it does not need to in order to give the figure. Reading plates is a different job, decided separately and installed separately, with its own rules and its own paperwork.
Why is counting drawn and asking written?
Because they are not the same job. A question is for finding things and for describing a situation: «tell me when a car has been standing too long». Counting needs to know exactly where the line runs and in which direction, and no sentence pins that down. That is why counting is set up by drawing, and why the figure always comes out the same and can be checked.
Other cameras
- CAM-495 · The check-in queue decides the review they are going to write
- CAM-496 · Forty guests crossing the forecourt, and reception doesn’t know yet
- CAM-497 · Nineteen people waiting and a single desk open
- CAM-498 · The breakfast room is full and the queue never gets past the host stand
- CAM-499 · Eight minutes uncleared, and guests are waiting for a table
- CAM-500 · Four guests standing in line and five tables set with nobody at them
A different case every time
Everything comes in. Only what matters gets through.
This sums up what IRIS does with one alert, from the moment it appears until it is closed. The real screen holds far more; this is the main thread.
- You ask
- IRIS searches
- It shows you
Next step
How long before somebody comes down that corridor at four in the morning?
13 cases: 12 raise an alert when something happens and 1 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
Who sees the child who has fallen at the far end of the playground?
13 cases: 12 raise an alert when something happens and 1 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
And the best part
There are nights of thick fogwhen the image gives you nothing. We do not dress that up.
Backlight, heavy rain, a street lamp that has blown. IRIS works with what the camera puts in front of it; when there is no image, it says so instead of inventing an answer.
Tell us your problem and we will say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
We reply the same working day.