Accuracy of crowd counting on events

In places where crowds gather, it is especially important for event organisers to be able to make an accurate estimate of the number of people present. In order to invest in a particular method, a fair comparison of the counting methods is necessary. Our earlier research strongly pointed to the need for calibration of different counting methods and a pooling and exploitation of knowledge and expertise among these organisers in order to help them professionalise and enable (further) growth. The project will result in a better understanding of technologies for visitor counting through a decision tree based on a fair comparison of (1) the number of attendees at a given time and (2) the number of unique visitors during the event which also provides guidelines for extrapolating the counts. The decision tree will result in, among other things, more accurate predictions, impact analyses, deployment of resources and a better choice of visitor counts based on accuracy.

Keywords:IMPACT ANALYSIS

Disciplines:Intelligent transportation systems, Telecommunication and remote sensing, Automation and control systems, Occupational health and safety

Project type:Collaboration project

Results:During the TETRA-project "Accuracy of crowd counting on events" an extensive literature study was conducted and intensive collaborations with event organizers and suppliers of various counting methods were set up. Based on these insights appropriate and non-appropriate methods for visitor counting at events were screened. Screening focused on : practival employability, organizational feasibility and applicability within the event sector. Afterwards, six appropriate counting methods were employed during eleven test cases, events varying in type and size, aiming to calculate the accuracy of different methods and compare them. Results of this research were translated into the "Telwijzer" (Crowd counter). This aid is freely accessible as part of the Toolkit available on the research website of the research center (www.publiekeimpact.be) en through the website www.telwijzer.be or www.crowdcounter.be.