How to Measure Static Crowds? Monitoring the Number of Pedestrians at Large Open Areas by Means of Wi-Fi Sensors

Wi-Fi sensors identify which Wi-Fi enabled devices that are transmitting a signal at a given time are in the vicinity of the Wi-Fi sensor. This paper studies the application of Wi-Fi sensors to monitor the number of pedestrians that are present at an open area during an outdoor large-scale event. As not every smartphone is sending a signal, other Wi-Fi enabled devices such as printers interfere, and multiple Wi-Fi sensors can capture the same signal, a set of generic filtering steps is used to transform the raw data from the Wi-Fi sensors into a list of unique signals from Wi-Fi enabled devices within close vicinity of the Wi-Fi sensor within a certain time period. The length of this list is used as an indicator for the total amount of pedestrians. An operational field test is used to corroborate the validity of this indicator during which the amount of pedestrians on a square during a large-scale event. During this operational test the data from the Wi-Fi sensors were validated using camera recordings of the crowd dynamics nearby the main attraction point of the event. The analyses show that the number of unique Wi-Fi enabled devices that send out a signal in the vicinity of the Wi-Fi sensor is indeed a valid indicator for the amount of pedestrians that are present on the square. The results of this study provide a good indication that Wi-Fi sensors can, in most cases, be used to determine the amount of pedestrians within a certain area.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB45 Standing Committee on Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics.
• Authors:
  • Duives, Dorine C
  • Daamen, Winnie
  • Hoogendoorn, Serge
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 6p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crowds; Measurement; Monitoring; Pedestrian movement; Pedestrians; Sensors; Validation; Wireless communication systems
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01660268
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-03119
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 20 2018 9:27AM