A Navigation System for Crowd Flow Control by Controlling Information Presentation

Abstract

In recent years, navigation systems have been widely used in various amusement parks and sightseeing spots. Navigation systems, such as car navigation systems and navigation applications in smartphones, are also used in our daily life. By using a navigation system, users can not only find their location but also browse information on nearby attractions such as restaurants or department stores; furthermore, it can tell users the route to lead them to their destination. In these situations users will set their destinations by using the navigation system, but in tourism or for events, users have no idea about the current conditions. On the other hand, organizers will have a hard time trying to control the crowd flow as more and more tourists use their own mobile devices to search for the information they want. In this research, we propose a navigation system to control the crowd flow and lead users to specific destinations or areas naturally by presenting suitable information to them. In this paper, we will explain the experiments performed using the proposed system during an event held in Osaka called "Osaka Mizube Bar". The results of the experiment confirmed that the behavior of users can be affected by controlling the rank list that they check on their devices; furthermore, users can be led to a specific destination or area by taking advantage of this function.