Background

Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken heavy tolls on Japan’s tourism industry. Affected by border lockdowns, foreign tourists cannot visit any attractions in Japan; among which, the City of Ise is blessed with both oceanic and mountainous landscapes and has rich history and renowned attractions. Ise’s tourist spots, like Ise Grand Shrine, and delicious food like Ise Ebi (lobster), oyster, and Matsusaka beef, are all well-known around the world.

To revitalize the City of Ise, local official agencies have planned a series of activities, and the mascot, Hanaterasu-Chan will also help with Ise’s promotion of tourism, activating the development of local commercial districts. Known for Ise Grand shrine and surrounding streets, the city has dedicated much effort to revitalize the region, promoting tourism. In collaboration with Ise Machi Zukuri Kabushikigaisha (Ise-Machi Development Corporation), this project launched a series of activities, and looks forward to recruiting new businesses and stores to set up operations in Ise and facilitate urban development, hoping to regain the glory before the pandemic.

Challenge

Ise conducted traffic flow investigation once a year, mainly through manual and visual observations, counting the local flow of people flow in a primitive way. Since the data was collected once a year, it was far insufficient to be used for the purpose of analyzing business and sales. Therefore, the city planned to adopt scientific methods and combine traffic flow data with IP cameras and AI analysis for around-the-clock investigation. Thus, the city government proactively searched for security and safety solutions that were precise, cost effective, easy to install, and capable of exporting complete data report, believing that they would help to generate commercial values.

VIVOTEK installed SC8131 Stereo Counting Network Camera at seven locations in downtown Ise, including shopping streets in various downtown districts, as well as an old restaurant with a history of 150 years, offering comprehensive 3D people flow counting solution.

VIVOTEK has excellent R&D capabilities accumulated over two decades, and this network camera is equipped with deep learning and video surveillance functionalities; it is capable of counting people and tracking traffic dynamics, achieving an accuracy of over 98%.

Through machine learning, the camera’s analytical ability will be continually optimized. Video images will be converted into data, and provided to shopping street shops and stores as references for store layout and promotion, enabling precise business decision-making and enhancing operation efficiency.

In the past, business owners could only look at customer checkouts to find out how well their businesses were doing; since installing SC8131, they can immediately learn the changing traffic flows outside their shops, and make quicker judgements on whether the sales growths are driven by store promotions or people flow in front of the store. Moreover, the sales model of SC8131 only requires an one-off payment, and compared to other local products, SC8131 has a competitive edge in terms of affordability.

Result and Customer Feedback

VIVOTEK and Ise-Machi Development Corporation strive for revitalization of downtown Ise. Through its comprehensive AI security and safety solution, VIVOTEK converts video images into data, and has helped local tourism and commercial activities. In this case, VIVOTEK not only partnered with ForceMedia to ensure seamless integration, also cooperated with local company EBILAB to integrate weather conditions, people flow characteristics, and event influences, to offer high-efficiency management guidelines.

The SC8131 AI camera has been installed in Ise’s shopping streets, and will measure the traffic flow from December 13, 2021 to March 31, 2024.

According to EBILAB President & CEO Haruki Odajima, “Fortunately, the store has two VIVOTEK cameras installed. The cameras convert the traffic in front of the store into data, which enables us to simultaneously learn the situation and make timely adjustment to our sign displays, maximizing the effect of the cameras.

Because of our successful application of VIVOTEK cameras, the local government has also procured more VIVOTEK products, expediting the development of local businesses and communities. In the future, we will continue to use VIVOTEK cameras to promote data-based commercial applications and activities.”