Hi Yan,

I think that this could be accomplished with just a barcode scanner and an Excel spreadsheet. Scan the barcode and write a macro to autofill a column with the timestamp (something like this: https://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/672492-scan-barcode-excel-date-time-stamp-out.html) and then sort or filter the spreadsheet to get duplicates or import the spreadsheet into Access and run a query to count duplicates or run queries against the date. This wouldn't work for large volumes of data, but could be a workable homegrown solution.

Kindra

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Han, Yan - (yhan)
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2018 6:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Patron head count

Hi, I am looking for an app or a program which can count how many time a patron use an information center.  The purpose of the app/prog is to find out a person's usage on the information center. We do not want to record what he/she uses, but would like to know the head count.  I could write my own, but if there is one hosted with reasonable cost, it will be better. 

The requirements are:
1. When a user come to the center, a staff will scan his/her card (with QR or other barcode) 2. The app/program record the person's info with current timestamp. 
3. The app can do some statistic calculation on the data (e.g. how many times does a user come to the center? How many users use the center in a day, a month, a quote  ) 4. It is probably easier to have this app/program hosted by a company with minimal cost. 

Any recommendations? 

Many thanks in advance,

Yan