Analysis-by-synthesis: Pedestrian tracking with crowd simulation models in a multi-camera video network

For tracking systems consisting of multiple cameras with overlapping field-of-views, homography-based approaches are widely adopted to significantly reduce occlusions among pedestrians by sharing information among multiple views. However, in these approaches, the usage of information under real-world coordinates is only at a preliminary level. Therefore, in this paper, a multi-camera tracking system with integrated crowd simulation is proposed in order to explore the possibility to make homography information more helpful. Two crowd simulators with different simulation strategies are used to investigate the influence of the simulation strategy on the final tracking performance. The performance is evaluated by multiple object tracking precision and accuracy (MOTP and MOTA) metrics, for all the camera views and the results obtained under real-world coordinates. The experimental results demonstrate that crowd simulators boost the tracking performance significantly, especially for crowded scenes with higher density. In addition, a more realistic simulation strategy helps to further improve the overall tracking result

CellEVAC: an adaptive guidance system for crowd evacuation through behavioral optimization

A critical aspect of crowds' evacuation processes is the dynamism of individual decision making. Identifying optimal strategies at an individual level may improve both evacuation time and safety, which is essential for developing efficient evacuation systems. Here, we investigate how to favor a coordinated group dynamic through optimal exit-choice instructions using behavioral strategy optimization. We propose and evaluate an adaptive guidance system (Cell-based Crowd Evacuation, CellEVAC) that dynamically allocates colors to cells in a cellbased pedestrian positioning infrastructure, to provide efficient exit-choice indications. The operational module of CellEVAC implements an optimized discrete-choice model that integrates the influential factors that would make evacuees adapt their exit choice. To optimize the model, we used a simulation?optimization modeling framework that integrates microscopic pedestrian simulation based on the classical Social Force Model. In the majority of studies, the objective has been to optimize evacuation time. In contrast, we paid particular attention to safety by using Pedestrian Fundamental Diagrams that model the dynamics of the exit gates. CellEVAC has been tested in a simulated real scenario (Madrid Arena) under different external pedestrian flow patterns that simulate complex pedestrian interactions. Results showed that CellEVAC outperforms evacuation processes in which the system is not used, with an exponential improvement as interactions become complex. We compared our system with an existing approach based on Cartesian Genetic Programming. Our system exhibited a better overall performance in terms of safety, evacuation time, and the number of revisions of exit-choice decisions. Further analyses also revealed that Cartesian Genetic Programming generates less natural pedestrian reactions and movements than CellEVAC. The fact that the decision logic module is built upon a behavioral model seems to favor a more natural and effective response. We also found that our proposal has a positive influence on evacuations even for a low compliance rate (40%).Ministerio de Economía y Competitivida

Repeated sequences in linear genetic programming genomes

Biological chromosomes are replete with repetitive sequences, micro satellites, SSR tracts, ALU, etc. in their DNA base sequences. We started looking for similar phenomena in evolutionary computation. First studies find copious repeated sequences, which can be hierarchically decomposed into shorter sequences, in programs evolved using both homologous and two point crossover but not with headless chicken crossover or other mutations. In bloated programs the small number of effective or expressed instructions appear in both repeated and nonrepeated code. Hinting that building-blocks or code reuse may evolve in unplanned ways. Mackey-Glass chaotic time series prediction and eukaryotic protein localisation (both previously used as artificial intelligence machine learning benchmarks) demonstrate evolution of Shannon information (entropy) and lead to models capable of lossy Kolmogorov compression. Our findings with diverse benchmarks and GP systems suggest this emergent phenomenon may be widespread in genetic systems

"So go downtown": simulating pedestrian movement in town centres

Pedestrian movement models have been developed since the 1970s. A review of the literature shows that such models have been developed to explain and predict macro, meso, and micro movement patterns. However, recent developments in modelling techniques, and especially advances in agent-based simulation, open up the possibility of developing integrative and complex models which use existing models as 'building blocks'. In this paper we describe such integrative, modular approach to simulating pedestrian movement behaviour. The STREETS model, developed by using Swarm and GIS, is an agent-based model that focuses on the simulation of the behavioural aspects of pedestrian movement. The modular structure of the simulation is described in detail. This is followed by a discussion of the lessons learned from the development of STREETS, especially the advantages of adopting a modular approach and other aspects of using the agent-based paradigm for modelling

Modelling of crowd behaviour during indoor/outdoor evacuation

In pedestrian dynamics, there are forces that usually define the trajectories between the moving individuals. These can be more easily understood in corresponding video scenes where the crowd movement arrives also from the application of such forces like Newton laws as friction and action-reaction. Nevertheless, the complexity of the individuals' movement insinuates that, between them, there are also more complex or "invisible" unknown forces as the ones described by psychological terms that apply and dictate the crowd movement. In this thesis, we want to indicate the existence of those forces by modeling the movement of a human as an oscillation described by rhythms and/or frequencies perceived from its environment. Moreover, we intend to describe with the help of appropriate computational tools and detection and tracking software, the movement of a crowd as a network of rhythms and show that the correlation among the individuals' rhythm can lead to phenomena of synchronization and self-organization of the moving crowd

LED wristbands for cell-based crowd evacuation: an adaptive exit-choice guidance system architecture

Cell-based crowd evacuation systems provide adaptive or static exit-choice indications that favor a coordinated group dynamic, improving evacuation time and safety. While a great effort has been made to modeling its control logic by assuming an ideal communication and positioning infrastructure, the architectural dimension and the influence of pedestrian positioning uncertainty have been largely overlooked. In our previous research, a cell-based crowd evacuation system (CellEVAC) was proposed that dynamically allocates exit gates to pedestrians in a cell-based pedestrian positioning infrastructure. This system provides optimal exit-choice indications through color-based indications and a control logic module built upon an optimized discrete-choice model. Here, we investigate how location-aware technologies and wearable devices can be used for a realistic deployment of CellEVAC. We consider a simulated real evacuation scenario (Madrid Arena) and propose a system architecture for CellEVAC that includes: a controller node, a radio-controlled light-emitting diode (LED) wristband subsystem, and a cell-node network equipped with active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices. These subsystems coordinate to provide control, display, and positioning capabilities. We quantitatively study the sensitivity of evacuation time and safety to uncertainty in the positioning system. Results showed that CellEVAC was operational within a limited range of positioning uncertainty. Further analyses revealed that reprogramming the control logic module through a simulation optimization process, simulating the positioning system's expected uncertainty level, improved the CellEVAC performance in scenarios with poor positioning systems.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitivida

An Intelligent Monitoring System of Vehicles on Highway Traffic

Vehicle speed monitoring and management of highways is the critical problem of the road in this modern age of growing technology and population. A poor management results in frequent traffic jam, traffic rules violation and fatal road accidents. Using traditional techniques of RADAR, LIDAR and LASAR to address this problem is time-consuming, expensive and tedious. This paper presents an efficient framework to produce a simple, cost efficient and intelligent system for vehicle speed monitoring. The proposed method uses an HD (High Definition) camera mounted on the road side either on a pole or on a traffic signal for recording video frames. On the basis of these frames, a vehicle can be tracked by using radius growing method, and its speed can be calculated by calculating vehicle mask and its displacement in consecutive frames. The method uses pattern recognition, digital image processing and mathematical techniques for vehicle detection, tracking and speed calculation. The validity of the proposed model is proved by testing it on different highways.Comment: 5 page