TJ Morris has entered into a technology partnership with Hitachi Europe to install motion sensor technology in all 550 Home Bargains to monitor and limit the number of people inside.

Home Bargains is the latest retailer to introduce an automated traffic light queueing system to control the number of customers in their stores.

Following government guidelines, each store has calculated how many people can be inside and maintain a safe distance from one another. Based on each store’s capacity limit, the new system will signal when it’s safe for customers to enter.

The technology behind this system is Hitachi’s 3D LiDAR Motion Sensor, which can monitor, in real-time, the number of people in-store.

In addition to people counting, the sensor can also track a customer’s journey around a store by directly detecting human shape and movement, identifying where they stopped and who they passed by. This is achieved without privacy invasion, as unlike CCTV cameras, the sensor does not collect personal information.

Joe Morris, director of innovation at TJ Morris, said: “Over the past few months, retail environments have changed, and we’ve had to quickly adapt to new ways of operating.

"New, innovative technologies have played a significant part in us still being able to provide a safe and pleasant shopping experience for our customers."

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