Metodo LYNCE
EXACTCROWD is born to respond for a sociological need: to count crowds attending urban demonstrations.
DATA COLLECTION (example from the 17-October-2009 demonstration in Madrid):
1) Two high definition (Full HD 1080) video cameras, situated in an elevated position in the route, made a record of demonstration: three hours in total.
2) A zeppelin made from 300 to 600 high resolution pictures overhead in raw format.
3) Two photographers take pictures of the demonstration environment, the density and areas of assistance that could not sweep the zeppelin.
ANALYSIS
With selected images already have a fairly clear composition of all streets and places occupied by the event in its moment of greatest assistance.
For the count EXACTCROWD uses its own plugin, specialized in identifying and numbering the people who appear in a picture, which runs on a photo editing program.
QUALITY CONTROL
To get the final count, we follow a specific quality control method, in reducing the possibility of have false positives or false negatives, ie not count anyone behind a banner or, in the earlier semi-automatic process, a shadow has been told, a shrub or globe as if it were a person.
EXACTCROWD wants to give the real value the public expression of opinions has by providing rigor to the measurement of assistance in such public events.
Obviously, in the case of large cities, it is really difficult to count the crowd. And as the social relevance of an event is measured by the attendance achieved, organizers tend to "exaggerate” a little the figures.
Sometimes, these figures are far from logic. Like when organizers give a number of public "in situ" in a football game greater than the capacity of the stadium, or establishing a number of demonstrators who had never fit in a certain street.
VISION AND OBJECTIVES
EXACTCROWD aspires to become a social reference point for measuring urban areas, offering real accurate data. We are social scientists; the statistics, computer science and logic will be our tools. We have no bias, political or social affiliation. We just want MEASURE, counting the audience “head by head”.
