Page 42 - Security Today, January/February 2022

Driving Revenue
How LiDAR is improving security at casinos with flow management
By Gerald Becker
The year 2020 was a challenge for casinos, as lock- downs forced them to close their doors and ulti- mately cost the gaming industry $18.3 billion in the 2020 fiscal. However, casinos have come back stronger than ever, focused on recouping those losses and then some. LiDAR is playing a key role in the gaming industry’s comeback by providing rich data and insights into how people move throughout the space.
This information not only improves on-site security, ensuring guests have a safe and enjoyable experience, but it also makes it possible to understand customers at a much more granular level to drive engagement–and, ultimately, increase revenue. All this is accomplished without collecting any personally identifying infor- mation (PII), and without the high costs of running cabling for hundreds of cameras.
EXPLAINING LIDAR
3D LiDAR sensors emit pulsed light waves into the surrounding environment. These pulses bounce off surrounding objects and
“LiDAR has emerged as a powerful technology for casinos as they seek to improve the customer experience, unlock insights into guest behavior, mitigate security risks, and reveal untapped revenue opportunities.”
return to the sensor, which then uses the time it took each pulse to return to the sensor to calculate the distance it traveled (time-of- flight). This data will create a rich 3D point cloud, which provides incredibly granular detail about the surrounding area–all in real time.
LiDAR technology is commonly used in a wide variety of markets like robotics, terrestrial mapping, autonomous vehicles and industrial IoT. More recently, LiDAR’s unique ability to accurately monitor and track people – completely anonymously – as they move throughout a space has opened up a wide range of possibilities for smart spaces.
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 | SECURITY TODAY
CASINO SECURITY
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