How to enforce social distancing at an event with three-hundred thousand visitors a day? AI-equipped cameras to zoom in on those without masks at Kumbh Mela
The Kumbh Mela at Haridwar is a mela (religious festival) held every 12 years at Haridwar, India. The Kumbh mela sees a daily average of over three hundred thousand devotees at the various ghats (river banks) in Haridwar, but that number is expected to swell during the shahi snans on April 12, 14 and 27. This year, officials are especially concerned about the impact of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They are exploring hi-tech options to monitor the teeming masses including Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled cameras. Officials said over 350 CCTV cameras have been installed at different locations in the mela area, with about 100 of these equipped with sensors that generate an alert when the camera captures the image of a person without a mask. These AI-equipped cameras also generate an alert when sites identified as vulnerable for stampede at Har-ki-Pauri, Subhash ghat, Brahmakund, Malviya Dweep and other areas that see a higher crowd density. The cameras are al...