Sensors Lab & Lab Sensors for Research and Facilities

Deploying Butlr in a Sensors Lab — Setup & Calibration

A clear deployment and calibration plan ensures consistent, repeatable results in lab and testbed settings.

Planning

• Define measurement goals: occupancy counts, ingress/egress events, dwell times, or flow trajectories.
• Choose sensor density: use more sensors for fine-grained maps; fewer sensors for general occupancy detection.
• Identify mounting and sightlines: ceiling mounting provides broad coverage; wall mounting suits doorways and corridors.

Installation

• Mount sensors at recommended heights and angles for consistent field of view.
• Ensure power and network connectivity for wired devices; verify wireless coverage for battery or wireless units.
• Label and map each sensor to a digital floor plan to simplify analysis and reproducibility.

Calibration & Validation

• Perform an initial walk-through and record baseline data to verify sensor response.
• Use controlled movements and known counts to validate accuracy and tune sensitivity settings.
• Log calibration steps and environmental conditions such as temperature and reflective surfaces for lab reproducibility.

Data Handling

• Export raw and aggregated data for analysis in CSV or JSON formats and import into statistical tools.
• Timestamp synchronization across devices is essential for multi-sensor experiments.

Virtual Lab & Simulation Options — Demo Data and Visualizations

Virtual labs let researchers and educators simulate deployments without hardware costs or physical access.

Ways to virtualize thermal sensing

• Demo datasets: use pre-recorded anonymized heat-map streams to practice visualization and analytics workflows.
• Simulated event streams: create time-series data representing occupancy scenarios for algorithm testing.
• Dashboard demos: connect simulated feeds to interactive dashboards to evaluate UX and reporting.

Benefits for labs and classrooms

• Remote experimentation: students and researchers can test pipelines and analytics remotely.
• Reproducible scenarios: standardize inputs for algorithm benchmarking.
• Reduced setup time: iterate on layouts, thresholds, and visualizations before field trials.

Practical tips

• Maintain clear metadata for simulated files such as sensor layout, sampling rate, and scenario description.
• Use consistent sampling intervals and timestamps to mirror real-world conditions.
• Share example visualizations to accelerate onboarding and collaboration.

Product Specs — Wireless and Wired Thermal Sensors

When selecting lab-grade sensors consider sensing modality, connectivity, power, and data outputs.

Key considerations

• Sensing modality: heat-based arrays that provide anonymized occupancy maps rather than raw imagery.
• Connectivity options: wired Ethernet for stable lab testbeds; wireless for flexible pilot setups.
• Power requirements: PoE or battery-powered variants for different deployment constraints.
• Data outputs: support for common formats such as CSV and JSON, APIs, and streaming protocols.

Sensor selection checklist

• Coverage area per sensor and recommended mounting height.
• Sampling frequency and latency for real-time experiments.
• Integration points: REST APIs, MQTT, or native connectors for analytics platforms.
• Environmental tolerances: operating temperature ranges and humidity tolerance.

Privacy & Compliance — Anonymous, Non-PII Sensing

Privacy is often a primary requirement in university and human-subject research. Heat-based sensors provide a privacy-first alternative to cameras.

Privacy features to verify

• No video capture: sensors produce anonymized heat maps or presence counts rather than footage.
• On-device anonymization: transformations applied at the sensor level reduce risk of re-identification.
• Data minimization: store only aggregates or features needed for research.
• Access controls and audit logs for research data and dashboards.

Regulatory and ethical considerations

• Institutional Review Boards commonly assess human-subject research; present sensor anonymization methods and data retention policies.
• Clearly document data flows, storage locations, and retention schedules for compliance reviews.

Thermal vs. Camera vs. PIR vs. Air-Quality Sensors — Quick Comparison

• Thermal sensors: best for anonymous occupancy, flow, and dwell analytics; robust in varying light.
• Cameras: high detail and visual context, but raise privacy concerns and require higher bandwidth and storage.
• PIR sensors: low cost and effective for simple motion detection, but limited spatial resolution.
• Air-quality sensors: measure environmental conditions such as CO2, VOCs, and particulates and complement occupancy data for ventilation studies.

Use sensors together for richer insights: pair thermal occupancy streams with CO2 and temperature sensors to study ventilation efficiency and human comfort.

Case Studies & Customer Stories

Labs and facilities who pilot heat-based sensing often report rapid insights with minimal privacy risk. Typical outcomes include improved utilization reporting for classrooms, faster validation cycles for pedestrian flow models, and energy savings after integrating occupancy data with HVAC controls.

Consider documenting pilot metrics such as percent accuracy for door counts, reduction in HVAC runtime, or changes in room utilization after policy changes.

Next Steps — Pilots, Demos, and Data Packages

If you manage a sensors lab or plan a pilot, prioritize these actions.

• Define experiment goals and success metrics such as accuracy, coverage, and privacy constraints.
• Start with a small pilot: map a few sensors to a floor plan and collect baseline data.
• Request demo datasets or a virtual lab package to iterate on analytics and dashboards before scaling.
• Document calibration steps and share findings for reproducible lab experiments.

Butlr’s thermal sensing platform is designed for labs and facilities that need anonymized occupancy, flexible deployment, and integration-ready data. For assistance planning a lab pilot or obtaining demo datasets, contact the team to discuss your research or facilities goals and available resources.