Footfall

Proof that people walk here. Without a picture of anyone.

Footfall is a small camera for your window. It counts the adults and children who walk past, in each direction, and keeps only the count. It's for residents who need numbers a planning officer will take seriously.

Register interest See a sample report
Proposed driveway count line Footfall in a window
Adults out
0
Adults in
0
Children out
0
Children in
0

What Footfall writes down, one row per person:

    A simulation of a weekday school run, sped up.

    A planning objection is stronger with numbers.

    When a new driveway or junction would cut across a footpath, the people who use that path every day know how busy it is. A planning officer weighing your objection usually doesn't. "Lots of children walk here" is easy to set aside. "212 children crossed this point in the morning school run, measured over four weeks" is not.

    Footfall gives you that figure, broken down by time of day, direction, and adult or child, with a stated accuracy you checked yourself. It's the same evidence a traffic survey would gather, from your own window.

    From window to evidence in four steps.

    1. Put it in a window

      A rubber hood seals the camera to the glass so there's no glare. It plugs into a normal socket and joins your Wi-Fi.

    2. Draw the count line

      Open the setup view on your phone and drag a line across the path. Then walk past a couple of times so it learns how tall people look at that spot.

    3. Leave it counting

      It runs day and night for weeks. A summary arrives each evening, and it tells you if it ever stops.

    4. Export the evidence

      One click produces the spreadsheet and a one-page method note, ready to attach to your objection.

    On your phone, your wrist and your lock screen.

    The Footfall app shows the school run as it happens, lets anyone in the house count by hand to check the camera, and says plainly when something needs a look.

    Footfall's Today screen: the morning run is live, with 18 children and 11 adults so far, and the counter's health shows Counting.
    Today. The school run as it happens, with a health check in plain words.
    Footfall's Live screen: a drawing of people as boxes crossing a vertical counting line, each labelled with a height and adult or child.
    Live. A drawing of what the camera detects. Never a picture of anyone.
    08:41
    Tuesday 3 November
    Lock screen Live Activity for the morning run: 18 children and 11 adults, until 9:00. Lock screen Live Activity for counting by hand: buttons for adult and child in each direction, and undo.
    Lock screen. Watch the run build, or count by hand without unlocking.
    Footfall on Apple Watch: four tiles for adult and child, left to right and right to left, with counts.
    Apple Watch. Count by feel: one tick for an adult, two for a child. Turn the crown to undo.
    Small widget: Counting, 29 people today. Medium widget: the morning run with 18 children and 11 adults, and the afternoon run still to come.
    Widgets. Today's numbers and whether the counter is working, at a glance.

    Screens show sample data.

    It counts people. It never records them.

    Each frame from the camera is looked at once, in memory, and thrown away. Footfall works out where people are and how tall they look, notes when someone crosses the line, and forgets everything else. There's nothing to leak, nothing to subpoena, and no footage of children anywhere.

    • No video or photos, ever written to disk
    • No faces, clothing or anything that identifies a person
    • Nothing sent to a cloud service
    • No view of neighbouring homes needed or kept

    This is everything Footfall keeps about a person

    Time
    08:31:07, Tue 3 Nov
    Direction
    Left to right
    Adult or child
    Child
    Estimated height
    1.21 m
    Confidence
    0.91
    Seen for
    34 frames

    Reports a council can check.

    Every report states how it was measured and how accurate it is. You check the accuracy yourself by tallying people on your phone for half an hour while Footfall counts the same people.

    Sample daily summary.
    Tuesday 3 NovemberAdultsChildrenUnsureTotal
    Morning school run, 08:15 to 09:0061584123
    Afternoon school run, 15:00 to 15:4554633120
    Rest of the day148219178
    Whole day26314216421

    The figures in this sample are illustrative, not from a real site.

    08:41 to 08:46Busiest five minutes, with 38 people crossing.
    9 childrencrossed with no adult nearby, an estimate shown separately.
    96% accurateagainst hand tallies, measured in daylight and in the dark.

    Small kit, built to run for months.

    Footfall runs on a Raspberry Pi with an AI accelerator, so all the counting happens inside the box. An infrared light outside the window keeps it counting through dark winter mornings, invisible to anyone walking past.

    If the power cuts out, it keeps the right time and picks up where it left off. If the clock can't be trusted, those counts are left out of the evidence rather than guessed.

    • CounterRaspberry Pi 5 with a 26 TOPS AI accelerator, cooled and clocked with a backup battery
    • CameraNight-capable camera module in a rubber window hood
    • Night light850 nm infrared floodlight with a dusk sensor, mounted outside
    • SetupPhone-based line drawing and height calibration
    • AppiPhone and Apple Watch, with widgets and Live Activities, for everyone in the house
    • ReportsDaily summary by email or message, plus one-click evidence export

    Who it's for.

    Residents objecting to plans

    Show how many people, and how many children, use the route a development would affect, before the consultation closes.

    School street campaigns

    Measure the school run before and after a timed road closure, with numbers parents and the council can both trust.

    Parish and town councils

    Count footfall on paths and crossings without commissioning a survey or putting up a camera that films the public.

    Register interest.

    Footfall is in development, with its first school-run survey being set up now. Leave your email and we'll tell you when kits are available.