LiDAR Visitor Tracking
Software for LiDAR-based visitor detection and flow analysis in museum environments.
Role: Developer
About the Project
Open source software for LiDAR-based visitor detection and flow analysis in museum environments. The lidar toolset detects visitor positions using wall-mounted LiDAR sensors and distributes tracking data via OSC, WebSockets, MQTT, InfluxDB, and Lua scripting to interactive installations and analytics systems. Developed at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe as part of “The Intelligent Museum” initiative (ZKM and Deutsches Museum Nuremberg, 2020-2023), funded by Germany’s Federal Cultural Foundation. Released as open source under the BSD Simplified License in November 2023.
Components
- lidartool — collects sensor data and performs object detection and tracking, with web GUI for configuration and visualization
- lidarnode — virtualizes LiDAR devices on small computation units (Raspberry Pi, Rock Pi S) for distributed sensor placement via UDP networking
- lidaradmin — manages numerous distributed LiDAR nodes across large installations
- lidarconfig — tools for creating, editing, and managing sensor configurations
Supported Hardware
The software supports sensors from multiple manufacturers: Slamtec RPLidar (A1M8, A3M1, A2M7, A2M8 — up to 25m range), YDLidar (Tmini Pro, G/X/S/F/TX/TG series), LDRobot (LD06, LD19, STL27L — up to 25m range), LSLidar (N10, M10), and ORadar (MS200). Runs on Linux: desktop PCs (Ubuntu), Raspberry Pi 3/4, and Radxa Rock Pi S.
Features
- Contactless tracking — no cameras or wearable devices needed, privacy-preserving by design
- Multi-sensor fusion — seamless coverage of large areas, proven with 53 sensors across 1,400 sqm
- Multiple output protocols — OSC, WebSockets, MQTT, InfluxDB, and Lua scripting
- Calibration tools — web GUI for sensor alignment, zone configuration, and real-time tracking visualization
- Distributed architecture — single-computer or client-server setups with UDP networking between nodes