Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#31

Post by jordanmessina » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:21 PM UTC

crindy wrote: post #29

dhaivatpandya wrote: post #21

Fantastic product idea and a landing page that's so good that I figured out what the product does without touching my scroll wheel. I wish however, you'd include a section that provides a reasonable explanation as to why Workroom got a 950% increase in traffic. I'm thinking that if I saw that a place was full, I'd be less likely to head over there. But, if I didn't know, I'd probably give it a whirl. Alternatively, i…

I think the idea would be that this helps fill dead times. If the place is full, they don't need/want more people showing up just to be turned away. If the place is empty, then they want to advertise that to fill it back up. Also though, I think it was a 950% increase in traffic to the web pages powered by this product, not to the actual locations.

Right, the increase was on the webpages that included Density to show seating capacity.

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#32

Post by lost_my_pwd » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:22 PM UTC

Any plans to offer a "disconnected" version where I could push this data to my own aggregator+API instance? Use case for me would be where foot traffic numbers would itself be sensitive data.

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#33

Post by jordanmessina » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:27 PM UTC

lost_my_pwd wrote: post #32

Any plans to offer a "disconnected" version where I could push this data to my own aggregator+API instance? Use case for me would be where foot traffic numbers would itself be sensitive data.

This isn't in the pipeline but shoot us an email and maybe we can work something out: team@density.io

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#34

Post by ceejayoz » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:27 PM UTC

Xorlev wrote: post #25

codeshaman wrote: post #7

>> "After adding Density, we saw as much as a 950% increase in site traffic to supported locations. Our users love it." - Darren Buckner, Workfrom CEO When I use google maps, it shows me how busy various roads are and it also chooses the fastest route based on how fluid the traffic is. Seems like google maps is just observing the world and making decisions based on those observations. Now I was wondering, what if all…

> Wouldn't it mean that google maps is influencing and even creating the traffic patterns ? I'm pretty sure I've observed this in the wild. Occasionally there's a major accident on a freeway in Denver that totally stops traffic. People that know the area well enough hop off the first exit they can and find the most straightforward way over to a major arterial road running in the same direction. Maps sometimes comes u…

It'll be interesting to see if Google starts to proactively load balance these sorts of situations - send people on several different routes at once to keep traffic flowing.

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#35

Post by afar » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:27 PM UTC

codeshaman wrote: post #7

>> "After adding Density, we saw as much as a 950% increase in site traffic to supported locations. Our users love it." - Darren Buckner, Workfrom CEO When I use google maps, it shows me how busy various roads are and it also chooses the fastest route based on how fluid the traffic is. Seems like google maps is just observing the world and making decisions based on those observations. Now I was wondering, what if all…

Yeah... we're secretly hoping for some version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger's_cat

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#36

Post by sultanofsaltin » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:30 PM UTC

Don't camera systems beat this in pretty much every way? http://www.placemeter.com/ comes to mind.

You don't have to resort to infrared sensors in order to provide anonymity, but they do inherently limit you potential accuracy and metrics you can prodive. It all comes down to where the data is processed and what is made available. Also, cheap camera components are coming down fast due to economies of scale, not sure how IR will play out in the long haul.

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#37

Post by afar » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:32 PM UTC

robotnoises wrote: post #26

Had no idea what this was. Clicked link. Within one minute I figured out what Density is. Nice job on the landing page! IMO, this is the strongest section: http://www.density.io/#comparison

At one point we went as far as to quiz our moms. "Mom, what does Density do? What does it cost? Do we sell surveillance cameras?"

After she got 9/10 correct (she's 58)... she looks at me and says, "Ship it, Andrew. Ship it."

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#38

Post by afar » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:41 PM UTC

tommccabe wrote: post #16

How does your product compare to existing traffic solutions, like Shoppertrak?

Cheap and anonymous by design. Also, we're not after big retail. We're after everyone else.

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#39

Post by bgoers » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:42 PM UTC

(some) Kroger chain stores have a similar technology [1] to this to determine how many cashiers are needed at any given time! Neat stuff!

[1] http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/executive-insig...

Re: Show HN: Density – Anonymous People Counter and API

#40

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 13, 2015, 4:44 PM UTC

codeshaman wrote: post #7

>> "After adding Density, we saw as much as a 950% increase in site traffic to supported locations. Our users love it." - Darren Buckner, Workfrom CEO When I use google maps, it shows me how busy various roads are and it also chooses the fastest route based on how fluid the traffic is. Seems like google maps is just observing the world and making decisions based on those observations. Now I was wondering, what if all…

[deleted]