CAM-541

The queue is not moving and there are barely any free tables left

Saturday, twenty past two, the food court is full. At the first counter the queue doubles back and spills into the walkway: an eleven-minute wait. At the second it is six minutes; at the third, two. The seating area is almost full, with six free tables out of eighty-four. People keep arriving up the escalator. Here IRIS asks nothing: there is a line drawn at each counter and two zones over the floor. It counts who joins a queue, who gets to order and how many tables are left.

CAM-541 · 3 LINES · 2 ZONES · LIVE

What IRIS understands

What it recognises in this scene

queue at the first counter
queue at the second counter
queue at the third counter
occupied tables
table in the foreground, taken
one of the few free tables
the escalator bringing more people in
the coffee island

What this camera gives back

Nobody gets an alert here. Here you get numbers.

11 min+4 minLongest wait
48In the three queues
9 / minServed per minute
6 / 84Free tables
38 minAverage time at a table
14:20Updated

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.

Asking is for searching. Counting is for measuring. And they are not done the same way. Here there are three lines — one hard against each counter — and two zones: one over the floor where the queues form, one over the seating area. Anyone who enters the queue zone and leaves without crossing the line has walked off without ordering. A line cannot be described in a sentence: it has to be drawn, and that is why the figure comes out the same today and in six months.

line at the first counter · Counting line
line at the second counter · Counting line
line at the third counter · Counting line
the floor where the three queues form · Dwell zone
the seating area · Dwell zone

And also, one rule

You decide once. IRIS applies it always.

When the wait at a counter goes over eight minutes

Then

tell the food court manager which unit it is and how long the wait is
save the count for that time slot, counter by counter and table by table
leave the day’s curve in the operations report

The instruction that set it up«Tell me if the wait at any unit goes over eight minutes or if there are fewer than ten free tables.»

What changes

What changes for operations, for asset management and for security

The operations director knows today what each unit took at the till, but not what walked off down the walkway. With the wait at every counter and the free tables per time slot, he decides where to open one more till and when to put more people on clearing tables. And the operator paying the rent sees, in numbers, why he loses sales at half past two. Somebody who waits eleven minutes with a tray in hand does not come back next Saturday.

What people usually ask

Can you tell how many people leave without ordering?

Yes. It is a zone and a line: anybody who enters the queue zone and leaves without ever crossing the counter line has walked off without ordering. It is a number, not an impression, and today nobody has it: the till only knows what was sold. With that figure per unit and per time slot, you decide where to open another till and when.

Does IRIS know what each customer ordered?

No. IRIS counts people and tables, not purchases, and it does not know who anybody is: it does not recognise faces or compare them with anything. What it gives is how many are waiting, how long, how many get to order and how many tables are free. What was sold is what the operator’s till knows. They are two different figures, and they read better side by side.

Is this for arguing with one of the food court operators?

It is for talking with data. The operator sees the wait at his own counter and the free tables in his time slot; the landlord sees the whole court. Nobody argues over an impression. What IRIS does not do is measure the people serving: it counts people in a queue and occupied tables, not anybody’s performance, and it identifies nobody.

Other cameras

See it for yourself

Watch what happens. Then watch what IRIS does with it.

Not a recorded video and not a drawing: it is a summary of the real tool, with a different case each time round. The whole tool does not fit in a box.