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Decide if camera-based table alerts suit your restaurant

Some systems turn a restaurant's existing security cameras into a live table map that flags who hasn't been served. Work out whether it would actually help yours.

By Alan Brown

Video cover: Five minutes without a waiter? This AI alerts the restaurant

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Jump to the prompt ↓

🍽️ Five minutes without a waiter? This AI alerts the restaurant.

🟢 It tracks every table in real time: green means available, red means occupied.
⏱️ When customers sit down a timer starts, and if nobody serves them within five minutes, staff get an alert showing exactly which table needs attention.
🧽 Table left dirty? Another alert. Queue at the door? It estimates which table will be ready next.
📊 Managers can review the busiest hours to plan next week's staffing.
📹 The clever part: some systems work with the security cameras the restaurant already has. One shown in the video is Shire, which says it runs on existing CCTV: shireintelligence.com/

Context & limitations

Same cameras, faster service, fewer overlooked tables. But cameras that watch staff and guests come with privacy questions, so the prompt below helps you weigh it up for your own place.

Do this yourself

Help me decide whether a camera-based table-tracking system would be worth it for my restaurant. Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer before the next one. Find out: 1. What kind of place I run (seats, tables, covers on a busy night, counter or table service). 2. Where service slips today: slow greetings, dirty tables, the queue at the door, or uneven sections. 3. What cameras I already have and what they can see. 4. Where I'm based, and whether my staff and guests already know the cameras are there. 5. My rough monthly budget for software. Then give me: - A one-paragraph verdict: worth trialling, maybe later, or not for us, and why. - The two or three problems it could fix for me, and the ones it can't (it alerts staff, it doesn't serve anyone). - A privacy checklist for where I'm based: signs for guests, telling and consulting staff, how long footage is kept, whether it identifies faces, and who can see it. Check current official guidance for my country and link it. - Eight questions to ask any vendor before signing, including what happens to the footage and how accurate the alerts are on a busy night. - A cheap way to test the idea first without new software. Treat vendors' claims as claims, check their current websites, and don't recommend a specific product as the only option.

Works best with an AI that can browse, so it can check a vendor's current claims and your local privacy rules instead of guessing.

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