INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN APPLIED SCIENCE (IJRIAS)

ISSN No. 2454-6194 | DOI: 10.51584/IJRIAS | Volume VIII Issue III March 2023

Design and Construction of a Digital Bidirectional Visitor Counter

(DBVC)
Azeez , W.A.1*, Oyerinde S. A.2
1,2
Department of Physics, The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author
Received: 11 February 2023; Revised: 27 February 2023; Accepted: 28 February 2023; Published: 28 March 2023

Abstract: - This study presents the Design and Construction of a Digital Bidirectional Visitor Counter (DBVC). The DBVC is a
reliable circuit that takes over the task of counting number of persons/visitors in the room very accurately. Depends on the number
of visitors, when the number of visitors reach the maximum required, the number will show on display board to indicate that the
Hall is full. When somebody enters the Hall then the counter is incremented by one (+1) and when any one leaves the room then
the counter is decremented by one (-1). The total number of persons inside the Hall is also displayed on the (P10 Display board).
The microcontroller is used for detecting an entry or exit action and computing the figures (addition and subtraction) to acquire
accurate results. It receives the signals from the sensors, and this signal is operated under the control of embedded programming
code which is stored in ROM of the microcontroller. The microcontroller continuously monitors the Ultrasonic Receivers. When
any object pass through the Ultrasonic Receiver's then the Ultrasonic Rays falling on the receivers are obstructed. The obstruction
occurs under two circumstances, either you obstruct sensor 1 (i.e. outside the building) before sensor 2 (i.e. which is inside the
building) this shows that you are entering the building or you do it the other way round, which is obstructing sensor 2 before sensor
1 to indicates an exit movement. This obstruction is sensed by the Microcontroller, computed and displayed by a P10 Displayed
board.
Keywords: DBVC, Ultrasonic sensor Rays/Receivers, Microcontroller, P10 LED, Display board and Circuit.
I. Introduction
Reliable estimates of the number of visitors are extremely important for planning and managing the use of the areas in question.
On the basis of such estimates, it is possible to gain clearer picture of the use of the area and the sites where visitor traffic is heaviest.
Information on visitor numbers help the people responsible for managing the areas to control the flow of visitors, for example, by
directing them to routes that causeless deterioration to vegetation and landscape. In addition, visitor counts also help to maintain
and develop services so that they better correspond to the real number of visitors to the area (e.g. firewood supply and waste
disposal). Furthermore, reliable visitor statistics are needed, together with other information gathered from visitor surveys, for
evaluating the effectiveness of the area’s own activities and for monitoring changes. Visitor counting is simply a measurement of
the visitor traffic entering and exiting conference rooms, malls, sports venues, etc. With the increase in standard of living, there is
a sense of urgency for developing circuits that would ease the complexity of life. Visitor counting involves the following distinct
stages:
1. Careful planning of the visitor count
2. Installation of counters in the terrain
3. Monitoring of counters in the terrain
4. Defining the correction coefficient for the counters
5. Counting the number of visits
Visitor counting thus provides statistics on the number of actual visits that have been made to an area. When this information
is combined within formation gained from visitor surveys, it is possible to estimate the number of visitors, i.e. how many people
visit the area. In a public place such as shopping malls, religious centers and cinemas, data on the number of visitor is frequently
needed for marketing research or statistic purposes. Usually the counting process is done manually by the officers who guard the
entrance. If this process is done for a long period of time, it will be prone to human errors. Same goes to a room such as laboratory,
main hall, mosque or bedroom. With the advent of industrial and business era in Nigeria and the subsequent establishment of many
public areas such as churches, shopping malls, recreational centers and so on, there is a need to make adequate preparation and
plans for visitor control and management. This will help to keep accurate information on population density per time, identify
potential structural and social risks and effective decision making on issues related to population. Over the years, the usage of
Visitor counters has become very positive in terms of monitoring crowd behavior at a particular place. It began with a mechanical
tally counter which was introduced to replace the use of tally stick. A tally (or tally stick) was an ancient memory aid device used

www.rsisinternational.org Page 16
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN APPLIED SCIENCE (IJRIAS)
ISSN No. 2454-6194 | DOI: 10.51584/IJRIAS | Volume VIII Issue III March 2023

to record and document numbers, quantities, or even messages. Historical reference is made by Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) about
the best wood to use for tallies, and by Marco Polo (1254–1324) who mentions the use of the tally in China. Tallies have been used
for numerous purposes such as messaging and scheduling, and especially in people counting, financial and legal transactions, to the
point of being accuracy (Shenton, C. 2012) The substitute of the tally stick was the mechanical tally counter, it is a device used to
incrementally count something, typically passing. One of the most common things tally counters are used for is counting people,
animals, or things that are quickly entering and existing a location. As times went on, an electronic tally counter was introduced
which used an LCD screen to display the count, and a push button to advance the count. Some also have a button to decrement the
count in case of a miscount. Now, due to technology advancement, various type of people counter has been introduced to
automatically count the number of people entering and exiting a building at a particular time. Some of these are laser beam, thermal
imaging, video camera and the infra-red sensor. All these sensors play their role respectively as visitor detector. These devices are
very reliable and accurate in terms of performance as compared to the mechanical tally counter. In the past years, several well
established institutions (libraries, community centers, auditorium, etc.) across the globe have encountered various incidents related
to traffic monitoring. It has been a necessity to monitor the visitors to carry out the human traffic management task and tourist flow
estimate to vindicate accurate result for the organizational marketing and statistical research. This eventually indicates the patronage
rate of goods and services by consumers. Therefore, we deem it appropriate to identify these problems encountered by our various
organizations and find solutions to them by designing a digital bidirectional visitor counter (DBVC). The primary method for
counting the visitors involves hiring human auditors to stand and manually tally the number of visitors who enter or pass by a
certain location. The human auditing application or the human-based data collection was unreliable and came at great cost. For
instance, in situations where a large number of visitors entering and exiting buildings such as conference rooms, law courts, libraries,
malls and sports venues, going for human auditors to manually tally the number of visitors may result in inaccurate data collection.
For this reason, many organizations have tried to find solutions to mitigate the inaccurate traffic monitoring issues. It is our intention
to design and construct this digital bidirectional visitor counter (DBVC) with maximum efficiency and make it very feasible for
anyone who wants to design and construct the prototype. Building this circuit will provide information to management on the
volume and flow of people in a building (Banuchandar et al., 2012).
II. Materials and Method
Digital Bidirectional Visitor Counter (DBVC)
DBVC involves the individual components which are required to assemble the visitor counter to provide effective crowd
management as in motoring and controlling. The microcontroller based visitor counter is designed to respond to the flaws in the
operation of existing counters. The design has four main sections and circuits. This includes (ultrasonic sensor) , microcontroller
sections, alerting section (p10 LED module) and power supply.
Components Description of DBVC
i. Microcontroller (Auduino ATmega 328)
ii. P10 LED module
iii. Crystal
iv. Rectifier
v. Ultrasonic
Arduino Microcontroller
Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to
read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning
on an LED, publishing something online. The board can be instructed what to do by sending a set of instructions to the
microcontroller on the board. Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) will be used, and the Arduino Software (IDE),
based on Processing. Arduino microcontroller based on ATmega328 (fig. 1).

www.rsisinternational.org Page 17
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN APPLIED SCIENCE (IJRIAS)
ISSN No. 2454-6194 | DOI: 10.51584/IJRIAS | Volume VIII Issue III March 2023

Fig. 1 ATmega328
Ultrasonic Sensor
Ultrasonic sensor is divided into three categories
i. Transmitter
ii. Receiver
iii. Transceiver
Transmitter convert electrical signals into ultrasound , Receiver convert ultrasound into electrical signal and Transceiver can
both transmits and receive ultrasound. Ultrasonic sensor works by emitting sound waves at a frequency too high for human to hear.
i. Ultrasonic are easy to use and not dangerous during operations.

Fig. 2: Ultrasonic Sensor

P10 LED Display Module
A P10 LED Display Module is the most suitable for designing any size of outdoor or indoor LED display advertisement board.
This panel has a total of 512 high brightness LEDs mounted on a plastic housing designed for best display results. Any number of
2such panels can be combined in any row and column structures to design an attractive LED signboard.
The 32*16 module size means that there are 32 LEDs in each row and 16 LEDs in each column. So there is a total of 512
numbers of LEDs present in each module unit.

Fig. 3: P10 Display Crystal

www.rsisinternational.org Page 18
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN APPLIED SCIENCE (IJRIAS)
ISSN No. 2454-6194 | DOI: 10.51584/IJRIAS | Volume VIII Issue III March 2023

A crystal is a substance in which the constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are packed in a regularly ordered, repeating three
dimensions patterns. There are 7 groups, collectively called crystal system; Triclinic, monoclinic , orthorhombic , tetragonal,
trigonal, hexagonal, and cubic. The symmetry of each group is described by the relationship between the lattice side a, b, and c and
angle Alpha, beta, and gamma.

Fig. 4: Crystal
III. Block Diagram and Working Principle
The circuit works on the principle of IR. Ultrasonic sensor are devices that work with infrared light source and a photo detector
like a photo diode or photo transistors that acts like a transmitter and receiver respectively. It is placed in front of hall. The
microcontroller based visitor counter response to flaws in operation of existing counters. The P10 LED displays the number of
people going in and out of the hall.

Fig. 5: A Block Diagram

Fig. 6: Schematic Diagram of DBVC

www.rsisinternational.org Page 19
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN APPLIED SCIENCE (IJRIAS)
ISSN No. 2454-6194 | DOI: 10.51584/IJRIAS | Volume VIII Issue III March 2023

Power Supply
Power supply block consists of following units: Step down transformer; Bridge Rectifier Circuit, Input Filter and Voltage
Regulator. The step-down transformer is used to step down the supply voltage of 240v ac from mains to lower values 5v 5w as the
IC’s and Ultrasonic used in this project require 5v voltages.
Rectifier
A rectifier is an electrical devices that convert alternating current (AC), which periodically reverse direction, to direct current
(DC), which flows in only one direction. The process is known as rectification, since it “straightens" the direction of current.
IV. Results and Discussion
This section analyses and discusses results and findings during and after the implementation of design. It describes in detail the
final design perspective as well as highlighting the probable defects engulfing the project. A preview to the entirety of this project
establishes the essence and need for embedded systems towards technological advancement.

Fig. 7(a): Sensor showing the transmitter and receiver

Fig. 7(b): Displayed from counter immediately the system is ON

Fig. 7(c): Displayed ‘0’ guest few second after the system is ON, i.e. No guest is inside

www.rsisinternational.org Page 20
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN APPLIED SCIENCE (IJRIAS)
ISSN No. 2454-6194 | DOI: 10.51584/IJRIAS | Volume VIII Issue III March 2023

Fig. 7(d): showed the number of guest that entered the room and guest that left the room

Fig. 7(e): Rear view

Fig. 7(f): Circuit of the project

Discussions
Figures 7(a-f) represents the pictorial representation of the bidirectional visitor counter. This study incorporates the following;
Arduino ATmega328 microcontroller, IR sensors, resistors, and P10 LEDs. The pictorial diagram gives a preview as to what the
project entails. The 2-pair of infrared (IR) which consist of a transmitter (TX) and a receiver (RX) is mounted face to face across
the doorway. Both sensors are positioned at the entrance with distance apart. This means upon the approach of a visitor the installed
2-pair sensors are triggered by the obstruction. The direction of the visitor is determined by which sensor is obstructed first before

www.rsisinternational.org Page 21
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN APPLIED SCIENCE (IJRIAS)
ISSN No. 2454-6194 | DOI: 10.51584/IJRIAS | Volume VIII Issue III March 2023

the other sensor follows. If sensor 1 is interrupted first before sensor 2 is interrupted, it indicates that the visitor is entering. The
visitor exits the premises by interrupting the sensor in opposite direction. The output of the receiver circuit sends high or low signals
in a form of voltage to the microcontroller. The tally computation (addition and subtraction) is done when it receives low signals
from the two IR receivers. It is after this command, which the microcontroller is made to send control signals to the other I/O
devices. The microcontroller also sends a data signal to the P10 LED Module to visually display the exact number of visitors
remaining in the building. The transmitter circuit consists of a Resistor, and an IR LED. The transmitting unit is required to switch
‘ON’ the IR LED when powered by the 5V supply. A typical circuit of the IR transmitter is shown in the diagram above. The current
flowing through the IR LED is increased to at least 5A by the resistor in order because the LED is consuming much energy.
V. Conclusions
From the results, the digital bidirectional visitor counter is highly efficient and economical. There is no time lag in the operation
of the system. The system offers most favorable operation since it functions continuously without errors. Its program can also be
modified to take additional input depending on the function desired by the designer. There is no need for human auditor services.
In demonstration of the project, the infrared sensing part used to detect the passage of visitors worked. Arduino ATmega328
microcontroller was very efficient in its task performance, thus computation of counts and controlling I/O devices. Also, the P10
Led Module is effective in alerting and notifications. Hence the whole purpose of the digital bidirectional visitor counter was
successfully achieved and is applicable in the wider scope. Finally, it is concluded that the designed and constructed DBVC project
will count visitors effectively and efficiently by reducing the rate at which error occurs when counting visitors manually as the
project was to design and construct a device that would count and display the exact number of people in a building/hall.
VI. Recommendations
The following recommendation however should be considered to ensure effective operation of the DBVC:
i. The sensors should be positioned at the entrance in a way not to attract visitor’s attention.
ii. The device should be installed at a narrow entrance suitable for only one person to pass through at a given time.
iii. An uninterruptible power supply should be introduced to the system to serve as a backup power supply.
iv. In the near future, some institutions that deem it necessary to monitor their crowd may no longer rely solely on human
auditors and unsophisticated counter systems to tally the number of visitors.
v. The DBVC is thereby recommended for The Polytechnic Ibadan at large, to be used for visitors’ counting cum attendance
during seminars, conferences, workshops etc.
References
1. "Design and Construction of Bidirectional Visitors Counter Using Micro Controller," 2020.
https://eduprojecttopics.com/product/design-constructionbidirectional-visitors-counter-using-micro-controller/. (2021).
2. Anjali Sinha (2017). "Automatic Room Light Controller with Visitor Counter," International Journal on Emerging
Technologies ,ISSN 0975-8346 (Paper), ISSN 2249-3255 (Online), no. NCETST-2017, pp. pp 172-175.
3. Banuchandar, J., Kaliraj, J., Balasubramanian, P., Deepa, S. & Thamilarasi, N. (2012). Automated Unmanned Railway
Level Crossing System, IJMER 2 (1): 458-463.
4. Debasis Parida (2019). LED Display Board using P10 LED Matrix Display and Arduino. Microcontroller Based Projects.
https://circuitdigest.com
5. Jothibasu, M. Aakash, B., Ebanesh, K. S., Vinayak G. L. (2019). "Automatic Room Monitoring with Visitor Counter
(ARM–VC)," International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE), 8: 1379-1383
6. Krishna M. C. (2020). "Implementation of Arduino-based Counter System," International Journal of Engineering Research
& Technology (IJERT), Vol. 9, No. Issue 09.
7. Obah P.J. (2021). Development of Arduino-Based Counter System. Baze University Abuja, Nigeria.
8. Kumar S. (2021). 8051 Microcontroller based Frequency Counter, Available: https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-
projects/8051-microcontrollerbased-frequency-counter.
9. Shenton, C. (2012). The Day Parliament Burned Down, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10. Horne, P. M., Catchpoole, D. W. and Ella, A. (1998). Cutting management of tree and shrub legumes. In: Blair G J. Ivory
D A and Evans T R (Eds), Forages in Southeast Asian and South Pacific agriculture. Proceedings of an international
workshop held at Cisarua, Indonesia, 19-23 August 1985. ACIAR Proceedings Series 12. ACIAR (Australian Centre for
International Agricultural Research), Canberra, Australia. pp. 164-169.
11. Yuan X., Yu X., Lee T., (1993) Essex M. Mutations in the N-terminal region of human immunodeficiency virus type 1
matrix protein block intracellular transport of the gag precursor. J. Virol. 1993;67:6387–6394

www.rsisinternational.org Page 22