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The Science And Politics Of Counting The Crowds At The Inauguration And Women's March
https://www.fastcompany.com/3067376/fast-cities/the-science-and-politics-of-counting-the-crowds-at-the-inauguration-and-womens-m[font face=Serif][font size=5]The Science And Politics Of Counting The Crowds At The Inauguration And Women's March[/font]
[font size=4]Organizers have reason to exaggerate, but AI and eyes in the sky are starting to provide a much better estimate of how many people show up.[/font]
[font size=3] Sean Captain 01.20.17 12:00 PM
Public events are a numbers game. If a hundred people show up at a protest in Washington, D.C., who cares? But a hundred thousand? Okay, let's hear what they have to say. With a country fiercely split politically, each side will be bringing out as many supporters as they can today and tomorrow: conservatives with the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Friday, and liberals with the Women's March on Washington on Saturday. The high estimate for the Inauguration is 800,000 people, while 215,000 people have registered for the Women's March on the event's Facebook page. (There are also Women's Marches planned for other major U.S. cities.) Each side will have an incentive to exaggerate their turnout, and expect plenty of heated debate about the numbers this weekend. But technology is making it harder for them to stretch the truth.
We can expect especially accurate estimates for the Women's March in D.C., though the best count probably won't be out until several days later. Unlike Friday's Inauguration, which is a no-fly zone, the Saturday protest will be photographed from the air. At least one firm, Digital Design and Imaging Service (DDIS), will do a tally based on a combination of high-tech tools and grunt work.
The company gained notoriety (and the ire of organizers) for counting Glenn Beck's August 2010 Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial. NBC estimated 300,000 attendees, and Beck said there might have been up to 650,000. CBS, which hired DDIS to do a count, came up with 80,000 using a pretty thorough method.
…
For that rally, DDIS surveyed the National Mall before the event and produced a 3D map dividing it into different sections; it also estimated where people are most likely to congregate (like by the stage or under trees in hot, sunny weather). The company flew a tethered aerostat balloon carrying a nine-camera array a few hundred feet over the event to capture 360-degree panoramic images at various heights (to get different angles on the crowd).
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]Organizers have reason to exaggerate, but AI and eyes in the sky are starting to provide a much better estimate of how many people show up.[/font]
[font size=3] Sean Captain 01.20.17 12:00 PM
Public events are a numbers game. If a hundred people show up at a protest in Washington, D.C., who cares? But a hundred thousand? Okay, let's hear what they have to say. With a country fiercely split politically, each side will be bringing out as many supporters as they can today and tomorrow: conservatives with the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Friday, and liberals with the Women's March on Washington on Saturday. The high estimate for the Inauguration is 800,000 people, while 215,000 people have registered for the Women's March on the event's Facebook page. (There are also Women's Marches planned for other major U.S. cities.) Each side will have an incentive to exaggerate their turnout, and expect plenty of heated debate about the numbers this weekend. But technology is making it harder for them to stretch the truth.
We can expect especially accurate estimates for the Women's March in D.C., though the best count probably won't be out until several days later. Unlike Friday's Inauguration, which is a no-fly zone, the Saturday protest will be photographed from the air. At least one firm, Digital Design and Imaging Service (DDIS), will do a tally based on a combination of high-tech tools and grunt work.
The company gained notoriety (and the ire of organizers) for counting Glenn Beck's August 2010 Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial. NBC estimated 300,000 attendees, and Beck said there might have been up to 650,000. CBS, which hired DDIS to do a count, came up with 80,000 using a pretty thorough method.
…
For that rally, DDIS surveyed the National Mall before the event and produced a 3D map dividing it into different sections; it also estimated where people are most likely to congregate (like by the stage or under trees in hot, sunny weather). The company flew a tethered aerostat balloon carrying a nine-camera array a few hundred feet over the event to capture 360-degree panoramic images at various heights (to get different angles on the crowd).
…[/font][/font]
