A global airline challenged us to deliver a real-time system for monitoring capacity in its club lounges at airports nationwide. Through the system, the airline wanted to optimize customer experience in the lounges, reduce overcrowding and offer amenities to non-member customers when capacity allows.

The team prototyped a Microsoft Kinect sensor mounted to the ceiling at the entry to the B6 lounge at Chicago O’Hare airport deployed with custom computer vision algorithms to detect motion of people moving in and out of the lounge. 

Built in just 6 weeks from idea to MVP deployment, the solution was installed and tested during one of the busiest air travel holidays of the year at Christmas. The MVP achieved 89% accuracy during trial runs, and validated the technical feasibility assessment of the project.