ACOUSTICALLY MONITORED SHOPPER TRAFFIC SURVEILLANCE AND SECURITY SYSTEM FOR SHOPPING MALLS AND RETAIL SPACE

Acoustic surveillance of objects and human traffic in spatial zones of a shopping mall and associated retail selling space is used to detect shopper traffic movement and from it, traffic data such as: shopper volume, shopper flow, crowding, and also unusual motion such as crowd surges that might connote an emergency situation. The apparatus uses phased arrays of acoustic transducers including arrays oriented in a vertical aspect which enables differentiation of non-shopping young children to arrive at more accurate headcount figures. Several specific types of detected movement defined as abnormal trigger an alert to a remote monitoring station. The alerts are automatically prioritized using rule-based criteria. Enhanced surveillance of the alert site by audio links as well as site alert history information are also provided.