Calibration

After you have completed the installation of your sensors you will move onto the final step of the process which is the calibration and fine tuning of your sensors and setup.

Head Counts Explained

Occuspace uses "head counts" to help validate and calibrate our occupancy estimations. A head count is literally what the words describe, namely a count of how many people are in the defined space at a specific date and time. After sensors are installed, we require a handful of head counts at various occupancy levels to help us more accurately estimate the number of people in each monitored zone. These head counts are used as training data for our machine learning models, and serve to finely calibrate your setup.

When To Provide Head Counts

Ideally, we like to see head counts conducted at various occupancy levels - low, medium and high occupancy - for each space being measured. Some spaces may not get to "high occupancy". This is perfectly fine as long as the submitted counts have a degree of variability across the other two levels. The most important aspect of head counting is a variety of counts, not total quantity. Five counts of high variability are better than ten counts all of the same level of occupancy.

We generally need 5 - 10 total head counts per space across these levels to fully calibrate them and ensure accurate data, though we love it when our customers capture even more as each one helps better train our machine learning models. Every head count supplied improves the overall Occuspace service.

Submitting Head Counts via The Occuspace Portal

The Occuspace Portal provides all the functionality you need to capture and track head counts for your spaces. This is done on the "Head Counts" tab of the "Spaces" section of the Occuspace Portal.

Occuspace Portal Head Counting Steps

These are the steps to follow in the Portal to submit a head count for a space:

  1. Head to the "Spaces" section from the top navigation

  2. Navigate to the "Head Count" tab on the "Spaces" section

  3. Once there, you will see a list of all zones for the spaces you are measuring with your sensors

    • You can search for a specific zone by using the search box at the top of the page

    • You can also filter for specific statuses using the zone status dropdown

  4. Once you find the zone card for the specific head count you wish to capture, click on "Submit Head Count". A pop-up layer will appear allowing you to input the count date, count time, and actual head count value which you can then submit to capture it in the Occuspace platform. See below for some important things to keep in mind when capturing and inputting head counts

  5. Upon submission of the head count the layer will disappear and you will receive a confirmation that your count was successfully captured

If you made an error you can always edit or delete any head count that you submit by going into the detailed count summary view for the associated zone. This view shows you all head counts captured for any space and gives you the ability to edit and delete them.

It is important that the head counts that are captured are as accurate as possible. The following are some important tips to keep in mind as you count your spaces:

  • The space being counted should match the space on the Occuspace provided marked-up floor plans

  • If you are in the space at the time of the count, please count yourself

  • The time inputted for a head count should be as close as possible to the time it was performed. If a count was performed at 10:10am, the count should be inputted at 10:10am, not 10:00am or 10:15am

  • Counts should be conducted at least 15 minutes apart. If a count was performed at 10:30am, the next count for that space should not be performed until 10:45am or later

  • If possible, counts should not be performed during high flux times — when significant numbers of people are either entering or leaving a space. This may be unavoidable for some high traffic spaces

  • Counts should not be artificially enhanced — don’t plan to have people in a space that wouldn’t naturally be there to get higher head counts

  • A variety of counts at varying levels of occupancy is important for accurate measurement from Occuspace

Once you have captured a good variety of head counts for each of your spaces the installation work is complete. The Occuspace platform will begin to use machine learning to adapt to your space and filter for signals in your desired breakdown. Sensors typically take 3-7 days to fully learn your space depending on the size and layout, at which point our service is fully activated and you begin to receive your data.

At this point the installation phase is complete. You may make changes to your space configuration from time to time (e.g. the capacity of a space changes, or you wish to edit the names how your spaces appear for example). These management actions are covered in the next section.

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