Micro-scale thermal behavioral analysis for active evacuation routes

Abstract

Evacuation is a complex process influenced by multiple parameters that have significant impact on the design and execution of an efficient Active Evacuation Route (AER). Computer vision algorithms are critical for an effective AER, since it indicates the current situation awareness of the environment. Thermal imaging is an alternative effective computer vision mechanisms for the analysis of the crowd behavior either at the micro or macro scale. Thermal imaging allows efficient determination of people from the background even if highly dynamic scenes, illumination, occlusions or content alterations. This allows micro-scale analysis of the crowds resulting in an efficient active evacuation design. Experiments on thermal data from Athens International Airport indicate the assistive performance of our method.