Crowd estimation: keeping count with video analytics

Knowing how many individuals are within your facilities can help you optimize resources and manage the flow of people. To minimize security risks, organizations can monitor crowds and break up clusters of people when gatherings become too large.

 

To effectively estimate crowd levels, many rely on tools such as infrared beam counters, thermal counting sensors, or video-based overhead sensors. And while these crowd detection technologies can be helpful, they aren’t necessarily the best option when keeping track of a large number of people.  

Today, built-in software analytics can be the most economic and effective solution to track crowds. Not only do crowd estimation analytics reduce the need to purchase and maintain additional hardware or navigate complicated integrations, but they also help physical security teams keep people safe across venues, public areas, mass transit, common office spaces, shopping centers, and retail stores.

What is a crowd estimation tool?

A crowd estimation tool is a video analytics solution that estimates the number of people contained within a large group in your cameras’ field of view. That means there’s no need to add new sensors or devices because the tool analyzes live video streams from your existing cameras to estimate the number of people in a crowd.  

Since different businesses may have various uses for this type of solution, it’s fully adaptable to your environment and business needs. Essentially, the crowd estimation tool allows you to enable certain features and configure various settings for a fully customized setup.   

For example, a large-scale outdoor venue can define multiple counting areas to help operators identify overcrowded sections within the camera’s expansive field of view. They can then trigger notifications, announcements, or alarms to encourage the redistribution of people to less crowded areas.  

You can also configure the days and times that you’d like to run the crowd analysis and specify unique criteria for each camera. This can help your operators become more effective during peak hours and optimize your hardware for the best outcomes.

 

 

When is crowd estimation helpful?

We’ve all seen it happen on the news or online videos: that crucial moment when a crowd rapidly grows during a demonstration. Very quickly, this crowd either becomes a serious public safety risk or a major obstacle to the flow of people.  

To deter any violence or guide people out of buildings safely, security teams need to take swift action and course-correct the situation before things get out of control.  

Using a crowd estimation tool, they’ll immediately know when a threshold number of people have gathered. This knowledge can mean the difference between dispersing people safely or going into emergency response mode.   

Another example where crowd estimation becomes helpful is when trying to adhere to social distancing regulations. For instance, mass transit agencies can track how many people are using public transport and measure occupancy at each location.  

Overcrowding in metros, trains, and airports can be avoided. That’s because the crowd estimation tool can automatically alert mass transit and airport operators to areas where gatherings are forming and prompt actions that help spread people out on platforms, in terminals, and within other open areas. 

Multiple benefits for multiple businesses uses

At Genetec, our crowd estimation tool is now part of our built-in video analytics solution and an add-on module within our video management system. When you enable the crowd estimation tool, you’ll have access to the following capabilities:  

• Setup occupancy levels and receive notifications when a crowd threshold has been reached so your team knows when to take action 

• Visualize the evolution of the crowd’s behavior over time using intuitive widgets within the Security Center dashboard 

• Use detailed graphics to see the average number of people in a certain area or the maximum and minimum amount of people contained during a predetermined period 

• Enable conditional formats to help your team identify occupancy levels per area and visualize the results in your dashboard 

• Have the system automatically trigger alarms and unique event-to-actions when a crowd has been detected

 

Enlarge the counting capabilities of your Genetec system 

Current users of the KiwiVision™ people counter module with an active Genetec Advantage™ contract can activate the crowd estimation tool by upgrading to Security Center 5.10.2.  New users can access both people counting and crowd estimation tools with the same video analytics license.