Large crowds can quickly become chaotic, and dynamics can arise that are no longer predictable or controllable. Unfortunately, there are several examples of such events, e.g., the Love Parade in Duisburg in 2010, the Hillsborough Stadium disaster in 1989, and the catastrophe in Mecca in 2014. These particularly negative examples show how much still needs to be done to prevent such events—or at least to be prepared for similar cases. In addition, there are new threats in public spaces that have arisen in recent years as a result of terrorism.

In order to be better prepared for such situations in the future, accu:rate has been part of the S²UCRE research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research since August 2017. The aim of this Franco-German research project is to investigate new rescue and safety technologies for mass events in complex, distributed, and confusing environments. The project will research legally compliant monitoring, analysis, and simulation technologies. In close cooperation with rescue and emergency services as well as end users, these technologies will then be implemented in a pilot project at large events.

accu:rate focuses on how camera evaluations can be used to generate reliable short-term forecasts for recording crowds and estimating population densities in urban areas. We will focus on comparing short-term forecasts with real data.

Other areas of research pursued by the international consortium S²UCRE include the following:

On the one hand, video-based recording and analysis of crowds in cities serves to estimate density and analyze the movement of large crowds. Observation is, of course, anonymous. Furthermore, the aim is to enable the early detection of security-critical activities and situations, including suspicious activities and aggressive behavior. These findings can then be applied in security concepts or other planning cycles. For example, predictions and the current situation overview are used to create situation analyses and decision support tools for emergency services. The exchange of situation information and location data should ultimately lead to a more effective workflow.

With this research project, all participants aim to contribute to increasing public safety, particularly at large events. Therefore, the current state of research is being applied and tested at large events, such as the Hamburg Harbor Birthday, represented by the associated partners City of Hamburg, Hamburg Fire Department, and Hamburg Water Police.