Share

Smartphones, Twitter help gauge crowd size

Paris - Data from smartphones and Twitter can accurately show the size of a crowd, helping first responders in an emergency, a study on Wednesday said.

Scientists at England's University of Warwick devised a computer model based on data from Twitter and from phone companies in Milan, northern Italy.

The mobile phone system is cellular, meaning that it is a grid comprising pockets, or cells, where users are connected via a relay antenna.

When there are more users in the cell, this shows up in a spike in the volume of phone calls, SMS messages and tweets written on mobiles.

The team transcribed these spikes into estimates of crowd numbers.

They first calibrated their model on data collected during 10 matches at the San Siro stadium, the home of Milan's premier football clubs, where the attendance was known.

The model was then used to estimate the numbers of people at the city's Linate airport at different times of the day.

"Being able to infer the number of people in a specific area is of extreme importance for the avoidance of crowd disasters and to facilitate emergency evacuations," said the study, published in the British journal Royal Society Open Science.

"Accurate estimates of the number of people in a given location at a given time can be extrapolated from mobile phone data, without requiring users to install further applications on their smartphones."

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Rand - Dollar
18.99
-0.2%
Rand - Pound
24.11
+0.0%
Rand - Euro
20.61
-0.1%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.38
+0.4%
Rand - Yen
0.13
+0.4%
Platinum
902.37
-2.3%
Palladium
1,004.75
-0.1%
Gold
2,155.09
-0.3%
Silver
24.96
-0.3%
Brent Crude
86.89
+1.8%
Top 40
66,027
-0.3%
All Share
72,208
-0.3%
Resource 10
53,305
-0.0%
Industrial 25
99,749
-0.7%
Financial 15
16,627
+0.0%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Company Snapshot
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE
Government tenders

Find public sector tender opportunities in South Africa here.

Government tenders
This portal provides access to information on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of government.
Browse tenders