An intelligent crowd monitoring solution will combine multiple technologies and unique tactics to manage all facets of crowd dynamics — from detecting and stifling potential threats to optimising the flow of traffic for remarkable attendee satisfaction.
Crowd management technology powered by AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) are evolving increasingly nowadays. As technology is advancing continuously more security teams will contemplate adopting everything from radio frequency identification tags (RFID) with smart barcodes to facial recognition scanners and semi-autonomous drones.
IOT
The recent advancement of the Internet of Things has regulated several surveillance applications, specifically in Crowd management technology successfully. Over the past few years, surveillance systems facilitated by IOT devices and sensors have equipped a useful and accurate system to manage and monitor crowds in public gatherings. Crowd surveillance has been increasingly predominant in smart cities due to its across-the-board usage in security and surveillance applications. It has constantly achieved importance in the area of computer vision, machine learning, and deep learning. A variety of techniques have been articulated and expanded for the automatic monitoring of people in different environments and situations including supermarkets, crowded stations, airports, indoor campuses, outdoor concerts and other public places. It has a large-scale of applications, such as crowd management, monitoring, crowd analysis, bizarre activity detection, door access control, employee movements monitoring, and so on. Likewise, with these applications, it is considered a challenging task for researchers because of variable visual appearance, particularly concerning a person’s size, shape, body articulation, and pose.
How IOT operates in crowd management
IOT (Internet of Things) works in crowd management by leveraging interconnected devices, sensors, and data analytics to monitor, analyze, and optimize the movement, safety, and overall experience of crowds in various settings. Here's how IOT operates in crowd management:
Sensor Deployment: IOT begins with the deployment of various sensors and devices in the environment where crowds are expected to gather. These sensors can include cameras, motion detectors, RFID/NFC tags, temperature sensors, and more.
Data Collection: Sensors collect real-time data on crowd density, movement patterns, environmental conditions, and other relevant factors. This data is transmitted wirelessly to a central hub or cloud-based platform for processing and analysis.
Data Transmission: IoT devices use wireless communication protocols such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, or cellular networks to transmit data to centralized systems. This enables the continuous flow of information from various sensors to a central repository.
Data Processing: The collected data is processed using data analytics techniques. Algorithms analyze the data to identify patterns, anomalies, and trends related to crowd behavior, flow, and density.
Real-Time Insights: The processed data generates real-time insights that help organizers and authorities understand the current state of the crowd, potential congestion points, and emerging issues. These insights are presented through dashboards or visualization tools.
Predictive Analysis: IOT systems can use historical data and real-time analytics to predict crowd behavior and potential issues. This enables proactive decision-making to prevent overcrowding and improve crowd flow.
Alerts and Notifications: When specific thresholds are crossed (e.g., overcrowding, abnormal behavior, or safety risks), the IOT system can trigger automatic alerts and notifications to relevant personnel. This allows for timely interventions.
Smart Decision-Making: Armed with real-time and predictive insights, event organizers and authorities can make informed decisions to adjust crowd management strategies. For instance, they can open additional entrances, redirect foot traffic, or deploy more staff to specific areas.
Emergency Response: IoT devices can detect emergencies, such as a sudden increase in crowd density or unauthorized access to restricted areas. These triggers can initiate automated emergency response protocols, such as sending evacuation instructions or alerting security personnel.
Communication Enhancement: IOT devices facilitate communication between different stakeholders, such as event organizers, security teams, and attendees. This enables quick dissemination of important information and instructions.
Feedback Loop: The data collected by IoT devices is also used for post-event analysis. Organizers can review the data to assess the effectiveness of crowd management strategies, identify areas for improvement, and plan for future events.
Integration with Other Systems: IoT systems can be integrated with other technologies, such as access control systems, public address systems, and digital signage, to enhance overall crowd management and communication efforts.
The primary goals of IOT-based monitoring are as follows:
An IOT-based crowd-monitoring system is mainly utilized for the detection and counting of people in an overhead-view scene.
The performance of pre-trained SSD-Mobilenetv2 is investigated by testing it on the data set captured using an overhead view that is different from the frontal view of the training data set.
The people’s appearance in the overhead view perspective is remarkably transformed compared to the frontal view. Therefore transfer learning is utilized to enhance the detection performance.
The developed Crowd management technology is also skilled and competent to count the number of people leaving and entering the location using virtual lines.
The system’s performance is evaluated with both pre-trained and trained deep learning models using an overhead view data set. Likewise, trained model results are also compared with the other detection systems.
IOT technology offers a comprehensive and dynamic approach to Crowd management technology by providing real-time insights, enhancing safety measures, and optimizing crowd flow. However, successful implementation requires careful planning, consideration of data privacy and security, and collaboration between technology providers, event organizers, and relevant authorities.
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