Electronics device to count numbers of people - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Faringdon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 10:49:14 am
content: Hi,We are looking for a software engineer to come and work for us. We have a product which installs onto lamp-posts in town centres/underground stations/football grounds/bus stops, and counts the number of people who pass by.We need you to not necessarily write the software for it, but pretend that you did....you must be able to sound like you did write the software...you see, we are seeking funding from the UK government to bring this product to the UK market. Even though we simply received the product from our master Chinese company, we must make it look like we made the product ourselves, in order that the UK government will give us the money to take this product forward and market it.We are bandstanding that "British designed and built" thing...even though none of us designed or built the product, ...we do have engineering degrees which make us "look the part".Anyway, please get in touch if you can...we stand to be millionaires by the end of the year. We can get you over to China where you can speak with the actual software engineers...there you can learn to "talk the talk"!!......and get ready for a very bloated bank account!!!We have targeted people in the funding sector, who know what we're up to, but will "turn a blind eye"...but we still need to fool the "system" generally....there's big bucks to be had from the funding sector alone!......even before we start talking actual profits!"Pro-British" type people need not apply..... after all, this is all about forwarding the decline of the UK ,while seriously augmenting our personal bank accounts!

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 12:03:56 pm
content: Quote from: Faringdon on November 30, 2021, 11:03:17 amWhat part of the profits will the lucky winner of this engagement get from your people counter?

author: SomeGuy
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 04:06:53 pm
content: Wow...being in the software field and knowing how easy people tracking in video is now, this makes me just want to send a note to the British government telling them you're trying to deceive them.

author: hexreader
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 04:11:28 pm
content: Quote from: Faringdon on January 22, 2022, 10:49:14 amI feel so good that my tax money is funding your fraud

author: hexreader
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 04:15:55 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on January 22, 2022, 12:03:56 pmYour reward will be an unfulfilled promise of 0.1% of the profit and fully fulfilled reality of 100% of the jail time when treez throws you under the bus.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 04:18:21 pm
content: OP: I'm so glad that you have stopped making fictional troll stories.

author: daqq
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 04:33:01 pm
content: It's that time of the week I guess.

author: alexnoot
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 05:07:06 pm
content: Your crazy's gone crazy

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 05:53:29 pm
content: Weekend, and obviously a few too many good British beers. But do worry, it'll be soon made in China, too.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 07:06:20 pm
content: Quote from: SomeGuy on January 22, 2022, 04:06:53 pmSure. And that said, any job related to tracking people - no thanks. =)I liked the last sentence of the OP.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 07:20:01 pm
content: Some few yearsback i saw a job post from a Government of Canada unit, which at the end was saying"White males need not to apply".I am not kidding, true story.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 07:46:01 pm
content: Quote from: Faringdon on January 22, 2022, 10:49:14 amThis is a new low, even for you.Publiclyposting proof of intent to defraud the government. (17 year maximum sentence in the current sentencing guidelines by the way - common law cheat of the public revenue.) Even if this is intended to be a wind-up (and judging from your previous output I suspect you're serious), some bored copper might decide that a day out of the office with a search warrant and the contents of your house and workplace might be a nice change from sitting in the office doing paperwork.What particular variety of terminally stupid do you have to be to do this? Even Mick the Mugger and Fingers the Thief have got more sense than to do thisin public.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 07:57:28 pm
content: Yes, he's pretty careless, he's left quite an identity footprint. It wouldn't take long (I think I've got the basics already).

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 07:57:57 pm
content: gis a job,i can do that."so mr hippy how did you implement feature xyz?"" well erm,sorry but i cant answer that for copyright reasons"see its easy,were do i sign up

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 08:01:33 pm
content: You should probably delete this

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 08:05:28 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on January 22, 2022, 07:46:01 pmIn the US, it's called retirement by incarceration. It's better than starving to death, and affords one the best medical care anyone could want. That is, you can demand and get the best specialists at Mayo Clinic or claim cruel and inhuman punishment. The catch is, it needs to be a Federal crime (cushy prisons) with no state crime specification (miserable prisons). Of course most people abhor going to any prison, but for some it is the best alternative. I don't know whether that dichotomy exists in Britain.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 08:11:58 pm
content: Yes we know the OP is kind of obsessed with the topic and sounds quite bitter in general, but I found this fun.One may end up getting annoyed by his attitude, but I can't say that what he wrote here is completely fictional. It's even relatively common these days, and not just in the UK, and not just in the electronics industry either.To go further, hiring engineers and even PhDs just to cover up bullshit and attract funding is a pretty common thing these days, especially in startups. Making fun of this looks reasonable to me. =)

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 10:01:04 pm
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on January 22, 2022, 08:05:28 pmFor those who don't know, this is either a joke, or aninsanelevel of misinformation, as this couldn't be further from the truth, with the possible exception of inmates of theluxury prisons for the richest of white-collar criminals.Inmates at normal prisons, including federal, get basic medical care, if they're lucky.(And no, the phrase "retirement by incarceration" is not a thing. Try googling it in quotes. The only other result is from jpanhalt himself, on a different electronics forum.)

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 10:02:38 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on January 22, 2022, 10:01:04 pmSomebody's gotta be the pioneer

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 10:14:05 pm
content: Quote from: Bud on January 22, 2022, 07:20:01 pmOn your application you should have told them that you identify as a black female. In some places it is probably illegal to contradict that sort of claim.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 10:19:22 pm
content: Would you think i'd want to work for such employer

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2022, 11:19:20 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on January 22, 2022, 10:01:04 pmI give up. This site has the worst system for deleting and restoring I have seen! Posting images can be a nightmare. I hit a wrong key and my whole response was deleted. Apparently no recovery. I will not waste time on repeating it. Suffice it to be said that my attorney and I coined that term during a period of levity. I had no idea it was so unique. If you want to know the rest, read about why vaccinations cannot be mandated on prisoners and why prisoners on death row get transplants ahead of those who are not in prison. Our Federal prisons are better than some resorts.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 12:08:11 am
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on January 22, 2022, 11:19:20 pmIf you'd led with "my attorney and I coined the term 'retirement by incarceration' during a period of levity" perhaps Tooki wouldn't have taken exception. Phrasing it as "in the US" implies much, much, more than 'an in joke with my attorney'. You are rather pushing yourself into "unreliable witness" territory by doing that.

author: jpanhalt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 12:16:18 am
content: Sorry. Perhaps Tooki would be wisely advised not to rely on Google for American culture.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 01:05:33 am
content: Quote from: Faringdon on January 22, 2022, 10:49:14 amHello. My ex boss and family friend (England) already invented this system. He called it “PFM” for “People Flow Monitoring”, back in the 90s, and I used to travel with him and the team, installing these. This is not some small fry btw - they installed them in many, many train stations, shopping malls, airports etc.The name of his company at the time (1997 ish) was “Lee Integer Ltd” of Bowling Green Road, Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. It was then renamed to “Counting Solutions”, and a few years later, sold to Ferranti group, where the technology has evolved and thrives very healthily.Here is the website of the current company that runs the show:https://www.pfm-footfall.com/andI installed this in:~ London Trocadero (No. 1 Piccadilly, London).~ Kingdom Centre (shopping centre) Glenrothes, Scotland.~ Runcorn shopping centre.They also had contracts with British train stations, many other shops and malls, and I remember him saying they had a contract with “Schuh” shoe shops.I’m sure that many have copied and emulated the idea, but believe you me, back in the 90s he was the pioneer of this system, even if others existed.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 01:09:00 am
content: Quote from: Faringdon on January 22, 2022, 10:49:14 amYou are full of false bravado, and, erm, also a greater amount of something else.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 01:17:36 am
content: Quote from: eti on January 23, 2022, 01:05:33 amThey've been around much longer than the 90's. Traditional "foot fall counters" started to really take hold as PE beams and electro-mechanical counters in retail in the late 70's and early 80's. I'm sure there are plenty of examples older than that.I wasn't sure if the post was a spoof or treez was off his meds.

author: eti
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 01:24:48 am
content: Quote from: BradC on January 23, 2022, 01:17:36 amYes I’m sure that’s true, but this was and is fully automated and logged to a computer system. I didn’t get involved with the programming or detailed installation, I was mainly the “hand me the drill please” assistant, and back at the lab I was in charge of duplicating PICs and calibrating ceramic humidity sensors for other projects.I’ve no idea as the the state of the this sector now.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 02:14:27 am
content: Quote from: jpanhalt on January 22, 2022, 11:19:20 pmUh huh. And I have a bridge to sell you. It’s in Brooklyn, lovingly pre-owned.It’s one thing to find examples of where the legally mandated healthcare in prison is better than thezerohealthcare some civilians “have”. It’s quite another to extrapolate that to seeing prisons as resorts. That’s absolutelunacy.Quote from: jpanhalt on January 23, 2022, 12:16:18 amI think I can rely on the fact that IamAmerican for that. (Who keeps close tabs on what’s going on in my home country, even if I’m not living there at the moment.)But regardless Google is a decent way for seeing if any phrase has been uttered publicly in the last 20 years, in the sense of a sanity check of “has this entered the lexicon, even rarely?”.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 02:28:26 am
content: Quote from: eti on January 23, 2022, 01:24:48 amIt's massive. Conventional PE, Scanned laser curtain (though that was a bit of a flash in the pan), Video Analytic, Bluetooth and Wifi MAC. Anything you can dream of to extract usable data and like most industries a massive amount of smoke and mirrors on the part of the vendors who know full well the client is never going to put real time into verifying numbers and coming back at them.By the mid 90's we were adding additional channels into people counters and using them to monitor power meters fitted to tenant sub-boards in shopping centres. A counter is a counter is a counter and they all already had people counters.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 08:25:17 am
content: Can we leave out the disputes about americanims? I only left this thread open for the fun of the original post and/or evidence should it need taking seriously.

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 09:02:30 am
content: Can we please act like adults and stop playing this "taking seriously" game.It is utterly obvious that the opening post issarcasm(ever heard about it, people?), and treez is making the exact opposite point with the post. This is consistent with his earlier political opinions about him feeling bad with Chinese engineering sold as "British".Sarcastic trolling about how to commit a fraud, to make a point against such behavior, is not evidence of fraudulent activity.Now expression of such political BS and trolling on this forum is a completely different matter. I understand many don't like it, me neither, but upping the bets with "you are a criminal" card is just childish.What treez describes isn't complete tinfoil hat BS either. The situation is of course exaggerated, but public funding has tendency to go into wrong hands, and cheap Chinese engineering has tendency to replace Western engineering. The key to survival is to accept this and focus on strengths instead of weaknesses.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 09:19:45 am
content: It does indeed seem tongue in cheek as I'm not sure even someone as crazy as treez and associated usernames is quite that stupid but I've had enough and banned him. He has the same skill level in communication as the tutor that wrote my HND course material, I have no choice but to read that, I do have a choice in having to constantly attend incidents involving a user here with such skills in reasoning that trying to apply themselves to the field of electronics seems rather fruitless.Actually every time I buy a product that trumpets it's british origins it turns out to be a massive pile of garbage.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 09:44:52 am
content: because he is a general pain in the arse.

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 09:51:48 am
content: Replace "Britain" with "anywhere" and "public funding" with "public funding" and "outsourcing to China" with "general fraud" and you have something like 75% of public funded projects

author: hexreader
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 11:41:41 am
content: Perhaps it would be kindest if you would ban me too, ... for my own protection.I took this thread seriouslyI must be the dumbest person on the planetThat bridge for sale sounds interesting though. Where is Brooklyn exactly? What price are you asking?

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 12:07:48 pm
content: Back in 2007 the boss and I evaluated a setup to count the number of people in a room using a pair of these rotating laser scanners placed 1.5m high at two adjacent walls of a room to scan "rows" and "columns" of people. The rotation of the two scanners was somehow synced from an interface box then fed to a pc. Didn't work well enough for our purposes.Not this exact scanner but similar.https://www.hokuyo-aut.jp/search/single.php?serial=232

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 03:34:54 pm
content: Quote from: hexreader on January 23, 2022, 11:41:41 amThe Brooklyn one was such a bargain that it has unfortunately been snapped up in the meantime. Luckily for you , there is another opportunity in London (photo attached). I'll PM you.

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 04:01:14 pm
content: (Psst hexreader, I heard that bridge is falling down.)

author: hexreader
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 04:14:52 pm
content: Quote from: Siwastaja on January 23, 2022, 04:01:14 pmLondon Bridge was falling down - a long, long time agoLondon Bridge was sold to America, if memory serves, and appears to have been replaced.Myth says it was a mistake, and the buyers thought they were buying Tower Bridge.My understanding is that this was just a myth, not reality. The buyers knew that they were buying London Bridge, not Tower BridgeBoth bridges have been fraudulently fail-sold by scammer non-owners many times.Do not confuse London Bridge (boring) with Tower Bridge (still ultra-cool after all these years)I think confusion comes from "London Bridge" name being mis-used for many bridges - possibly including Tower Bridge.The bridge that was falling down was definitely not the Tower Bridge as shown in the pictureI don't think that I have enough money to buy even a small stake in either bridge, let alone Brooklyn Bridge.Disclaimer - Going by memory - there may be inaccuracies above.No doubt Google will give better facts than mine.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 04:18:02 pm
content: I'dhardlycall a bunch of children dancing in a playground singing a surveyor's report. Anyway, that song is about thenextriver upstream; although as luck would have it we can talk terms about that bridge too, if anyone's interested.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 04:23:03 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on January 23, 2022, 04:18:02 pmYou obviously haven’t worked around some of the local government in Western Australia. Over here it’d not only pass as a surveyors report, but it’d be raised in council for the overspend.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 04:29:13 pm
content: Quote from: barycentric on January 23, 2022, 09:27:11 amIn one word: history.However as a relative newcomer perhaps you're owed a few more words of explanation. Treez (which is the user name that this user was most active for the longest under) has for years plagued this and many other electronics fora with question after question about power supply design, often spamming the same question across multiple fora simultaneously. From their quality you would assume that they were made by a beginner rather than someone with a degree in EE (He has claimed a"BEng(I) Hons Electronics from Birmingham university"*). Despite these conspicuous failings, he has had the chutzpah to write his own course on SMPS design and promote it, sock-puppet style, as worthy of government sponsorship and promotion.When his posts don't reveal bafflement at how to design something commonplace and well understood, they appear to be worded to garner 'evidence' that some hair-brained design or theory he has come up with is also supported by other people, "Would you not agree?" being the stereotypical signature for these posts.He also promotes a political agenda, in the past sock-puppeting for his one man campaign's manifesto for curing the ills of British industry which weirdly calls for setting up lots of courses teaching SMPS design to a particular syllabus with government money. He seems to have given this one up, I think he finally realised that everyone who encountered it could see straight through it.Over the last few months to a year or so back he's come up with several schemes that involve various levels of deception or misdirection concerning the origin of electronics goods.So, given the levels of self deception he's apparently been partial to over the years, I'm not so sure that this latest post was sarcasm but rather evidence of a further decline in his grasp on reality. Sarcasm has never been one of his traits. Whereas getting the government to pay for his plans is a consistent theme since I was first aware of him.So either Treez has been one of the most successful trolls of all time, and we all fell for it, or he's progressed over the years from merely having odd personality traits, through the "annoys everyone with his shit" stage to "There's a psychiatric diagnosis waiting to happen over there".*Quote from: opampsmoker on December 08, 2020, 10:07:59 pm

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 04:54:54 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on January 23, 2022, 04:29:13 pmNo, you are wrong in this one. The posts show significant theoretical knowledge on switch mode topologies and converters, exactly something that could be seen from someone with the MS of EE degree, but not very much practical experience. What treez is capable of doing, is create some colossally convoluted circuitry which he is able to simulate in Spice, and get it "work" in simulation. Then he fixates on some stupid detail like the existence or nonexistence of a certain type of capacitor in the circuit and makes 57 threads about it during a year or two.This non-beginnerism is also what makes treez an interesting case to follow, exactly because sometimes the technical questions spark interesting discussions.If he could fix his issues withfixations, he could become an actually capable engineer, because he's neither a beginner, nor stupid. But fixations are endless time sinks.

author: pardo-bsso
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 05:12:50 pm
content: Hi OpAmpSmoker, long time no read!I'm no British, live in the south of America but read the Guardian sometimes.Do you take remote contractors?

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 05:46:39 pm
content: Quote from: Siwastaja on January 23, 2022, 04:54:54 pmI don't intend to have a back and forward about what Treez actually knows, but I'll stand by what I said, that from thenatureof the questions one wouldassumethat they were made by a beginner. We know that assumption would be wrong; heck that post includes the fact that he is qualified and with 20 years experience to boot. That Treez posts mightsometimesprovoke interesting and worthwhile discussions is an accidental side-effect.Anyway, I haven't got time for this: I've got bridges to sell.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 05:51:24 pm
content: Quote from: pardo-bsso on January 23, 2022, 05:12:50 pmDon't scare me like that

author: pardo-bsso
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2022, 11:24:35 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on January 23, 2022, 05:51:24 pmHa, are you afraid that he's gonna snatch me before I try to work for you?

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 24, 2022, 10:41:41 am
content: Quote from: Faringdon on January 22, 2022, 10:49:14 amSounds an awful lot like fraud. You have got to be kidding yourself! Do you honestly believe organisations (particularly government ones) are as stupid as you?

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2022, 10:44:29 am
content: They are stupid and then on top of that they are even more corrupt than they are stupid.If only you knew how some of that EU grant money is being spent in my parts of the world...

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2022, 01:13:56 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on January 24, 2022, 10:41:41 amOne only has to read the news to realise the levels of stupidity that governments can descend to. Similarly one only has to done work for any corporate organisation of more than 1000 people to realise the levels of stupidity that corporations can descend to.So yes, yes I do believe that corporations and government departments can be even more stupid than Treez seems to be being here.

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2022, 01:46:34 pm
content: Quote from: magic on January 24, 2022, 10:44:29 amThis is good...Quotehttps://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/east/orphaned-olinda-rabbits-chew-through-up-to-3000-in-dental-and-medical-bills-at-nokill-shelter/news-story/55a4f39728a32441a3d3c657bb87742a

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 24, 2022, 06:30:00 pm
content: Quote from: pardo-bsso on January 23, 2022, 11:24:35 pmNo, just the thought that he was back with another second account he agreed to stop using....

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2022, 09:42:32 pm
content: The technology used here might give you some ideas…You’re not so much interested in speed, but the potential for multiple objects passin and overtaking each other in a confined pathway.https://www.ceos.com.au/products/tirtl/#:~:text=TIRTL%3A%20Vehicle%20Speed%20Detection&text=As%20a%20vehicle%20moves%20along,the%20tyres%20of%20a%20vehicle.] https://www.ceos.com.au/products/tirtl/#:~:text=TIRTL%3A%20Vehicle%20Speed%20Detection&text=As%20a%20vehicle%20moves%20along,the%20tyres%20of%20a%20vehicle.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2022, 01:32:31 am
content: Quote from: magic on January 24, 2022, 10:44:29 amYep.