Crowd flow rate estimation

An electronic communication device comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory coupled to the processor, the memory containing instructions, that when executed by the processor, perform the steps of:
• obtaining a plurality of video frames of a crowd scene;
• estimating a total number of people contained within at least one frame of the plurality of video frames;
• determining a subset of the total number of people as a group of tracker candidates, wherein the group of tracker candidates are located near a first end of a first video frame from the plurality of video frames;
• monitoring movement of the group of tracker candidates throughout the plurality of video frames;
• in response to the group of tracker candidates reaching a second end of a second video frame from the plurality of video frames, computing an estimated crowd flow rate for the total number of people;
• detect a first appearance of a specific person in the crowd scene;
• detect a second appearance of the specific person in the crowd scene, wherein the second appearance is a predetermined return duration from the first appearance;
• and
• remove the specific person from the estimated crowd flow rate to derive a unique individual flow rate.

A computer program product for an electronic communication device comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the electronic communication device to perform the steps of:

• obtaining a plurality of video frames of a crowd scene;
• estimating a total number of people contained within at least one frame of the plurality of video frames;
• determining a subset of the total number of people as a group of tracker candidates, wherein the group of tracker candidates are located near a first end of a first video frame from the plurality of video frames;
• monitoring movement of the group of tracker candidates throughout the plurality of video frames;
• in response to the group of tracker candidates reaching a second end of a second video frame from the plurality of video frames, computing an estimated crowd flow rate for the total number of people;
• detecting a first appearance of a specific person in the crowd scene;
• detecting a second appearance of the specific person in the crowd scene, wherein the second appearance is a predetermined return duration from the first appearance;
• and
• removing the specific person from the estimated crowd flow rate to derive a unique individual flow rate.