Cambridge Consultants' ZipLine gets customers into the fastest queue

Now an infrared-based queue monitoring system, developed by Cambridge Consultants, could tell you which line to join to ensure you reach the front fastest, even if it is at the other side of the building.

The system, known as ZipLine, can operate across different floors in a large department store, or throughout a shopping centre, to identify the shortest queue for the toilet or for a coffee, for example.

The system uses infrared sensors to count the number of people in each queue and detect how fast they are moving, according to Tim Ensor, head of connected devices at Cambridge Consultants.

“It is like a low resolution infrared camera, in that we can see a blurry image of what we’re looking at, although we can’t see who the people are,” he said.

An algorithm on the sensor then calculates where the people are in this infrared image, how they are forming themselves into lines, and how fast the lines are moving, he said.