IT company Lovell Technologies is introducing two pioneering products to the Bermuda market that will allow businesses to plan and market more effectively.

Licensed to Lovell by a Danish company, the first is a mobile sensor that is able to count the number of mobile devices within a 250-foot radius provided the devices have a battery. The sensor connects to a business’ existing network via wi-fi, Ethernet or SIM card.

The sensor provides information about real-time and historical foot traffic counts, cumulative impressions, dwell times, repeat visits, and peak hours, allowing Lovell to provide reports to its business clients.

Data is populated within seconds, says the company’s owner, David Lovell Jr.

“For a restaurant, the device tells how many people are visiting the location at a particular time so that the manager can determine what staffing levels are required, and the amount of food to have in stock, because the device can gather trends,” Mr Lovell says.

“Over a three-month period, a business can see which are the busiest times. People can make well-informed business decisions based on the analytics that we provide.”

The sensor also facilitates marketing to nearby mobile users. Once a local or international mobile device owner opts into the Lovell wi-fi connection, Mr Lovell’s company can send them customised advertisements, coupons, promotions, and discount offers.

“The beautiful thing about it is that people are in proximity to the business so they’re able to make a purchase decision,” Mr Lovell says.

While sensors can be set up inside a business to measure mobile-using customers on site, which Mr Lovell calls the “inner zone”, they can also be arranged to measure the number of mobile users outside the business — the “outer zone”.

Mr Lovell said: “An outer zone sensor can determine how many people did not come in, which is pretty powerful, too. We can incentivise people to come inside the business.”

Sensors are “privacy-friendly”, Mr Lovell says, noting that they are General Data Protection Regulation-compliant and European Union-United States privacy shield-certified. “The key thing, if people are concerned, is that we are not obtaining any information about a person. The device just counts the number of mobile devices within a certain proximity.”

The sensor, he says, is considered “permission-based” since a mobile device user must access the Lovell wi-fi connection in order to be sent a message.

Messages can be scheduled for sending at any time, Mr Lovell says.

He added: “We can also limit the messages we send by saying ‘we have sent to them already today, let’s not send another message to that mobile device’.”

Mr Lovell says the technology has been tested, and is now ready for the business market, which he expects will include restaurants, retail stores, and hotels.

The company is also marketing hologram technology, which produces images that appear to be three-dimensional.

One version produces what Mr Lovell calls the “stop and wonder effect”. The hologram is in an enclosure, has magnetic strips for branding purposes — and is appropriate for a company seeking to communicate a marketing message in a novel manner, he says.

Mr Lovell said a second version creates a hologram in mid-air. The technology has been used to create events such as the recent “concert tours” by holograms of the late Roy Orbison and Tupac Shakur.

In each case, clients can enlist Lovell to create customised virtual content, Mr Lovell says.

A version of the enclosed hologram, featuring a variety of images, is on display inside The Terrace restaurant on Front Street. The restaurant has taken the product on a trial basis.

Douglas Olson, owner of The Terrace, said: “It’s interesting and different for the island, and has good, eye-catching features. It’s the first one to arrive on the island, and I hope in the next two or three weeks we will get our own marketing images in there.”

• For more information about the products, see the Lovell Technologies website at www.lovelltechnologies.com or contact the company at support@lovelltechnologies.com