Dynamic crowd counting via 802.11 MAC layer

Abstract

An automatic and reliable strategy to estimate crowd counting in events or protests is proposed in this paper. Based on 802.11 MAC layer frames, this methodology can be easily deployed using low cost Wi-Fi devices in a stand-alone installation or associated to gold standard crowd counting methods already in use for this purpose. In an experimental test set, the proposed method reached 83.3% of effectiveness when compared to visual counting results, proving itself reliable for crowd estimates.