The Design of a Crowd Density Checker App in

Android with People Localization Using the GPS

from the Mobile Device

Roland Szabo
Applied Electronics Department
Faculty of Electronics,
Telecommunications and Information
Technologies, Politehnica University
Timisoara, Romania
roland.szabo@upt.ro

Abstract—The aim of this work focuses on checking the
density of people in a certain place. The idea behind is based on
the fact that almost every person has a mobile device with
GPS, so getting the coordinated from the mobile device, can get
the coordinates of the person owning it. The coordinates can be
placed on a map and united them in clusters, to know the
number of persons in a specific place. The app can useful to
avoid big crowds of not. Sometimes it is needed to avoid big
crowds of people when going shopping or in traffic. Other
times it is not needed to avoid big crowds, because where many
people are, something is happening, big sales, good concerts or
good mood in a bar.
Keywords—coordinate measuring machines, density
estimation robust algorithm, Global Positioning System, mobile
applications, simultaneous localization and mapping.
I. INTRODUCTION
Crowd density it was always desired information to be
known, not only by officials, but by any person.
If it is needed to go to shopping and it is needed to avoid
big crowds in a desired shop.
It is needed to avoid big traffic jams.
It is needed to go to a bar and it is needed to avoid or not
many people.
Some people would wish to have wings to fly in a
specific place or to have a spy camera and see the quantity of
individuals in a chosen place.
Some would wonder how it's the most ideal approach to
keep away from enormous traffic jams, or huge groups in a
chosen place or it is truly needed to see huge groups of
people in a certain place.
Nowadays with all the tech gadgets the task is easier and
there is no need for the person to grow wings and fly in order
to check the crowd in certain place.
The most ideal approach is to utilize a mobile device
application which can distinguish the quantity of individuals
in a chosen place utilizing GPS. Everybody has a mobile
device with GPS support; however no one has a mobile
device application to gather the information from the area
they are interested in. The main contribution of the author is
actually creating the app in Android.
II. PROBLEM FORMULATION
The task is to create a mobile app which can count people
in some place.
There were many solutions to do this. The best method is
to use a GPS system. Nowadays almost every mobile device
has GPS, so to gather data from all of the devices and show
them on a map it can be a task of a very useful mobile app.
The mobile app is based on the fact that everywhere there is
a mobile phone, there is a person, so gathering the GPS
coordinates of as many mobile devices as possible can locate
the coordinates of those people. There more people have the
app installed, the more accurate can become. The app could
be even more useful if it would be added as an extension to
an app which is already installed on almost any mobile
device, for example as an extension of Facebook or any
similar app, where the user can chose if it shares his location
or not.
III. PROBLEM SOLUTION
This mobile device application can show the quantity of
individuals in a specific place. The number in the blue circle
shows the quantity of individuals in a specific place. The
number shows the quantity of clients which has the
application installed on their mobile device.
The application saves the coordinates of every client to a
database, amid the time the application is installed on the
mobile device. To reduce false positives the application
likewise saves the Android ID for every client to a database,
while the application is installed on the mobile device, along
these lines the location of a current client it's simply
refreshed. The Android ID is saved in a database in hidden
mode, it's not uncovered. The location of every client is
unveiled, however in a specific way, no one will realize who
is in an exact place, and just they will realize that in that
place it's at least one people.
The application constantly tracks and logs the location
and Android ID (hidden) of the user’s mobile device, even
when not utilizing the application. In the event that the user
does not agree with this, if it's not a problem, the application

978-1-7281-9513-1/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: Miami University Libraries. Downloaded on June 15,2021 at 08:01:12 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
can be always uninstalled. Not long after the application is
uninstalled, all the information (location and Android ID) of
a particular client is erased from the database, to reduce false
positives.
While utilizing the application, the location of the
considerable number of clients' in the database is shown on a
Google map. Along these lines every client can realize what
number of individuals is in a chosen place.
The application works better if there are more clients
who have the application installed, on the grounds that more
clients choose to share their location.
On Fig. 1 it can be seen the app with a Google map
clustering the users of the app in a blue circle. This way it
can be seen the people density a certain place.
The more users have the app installed don their mobile
device, to more accurate can be. The app first opens the map
of the user’s location, with the density of people in his
location, but it can be also searched (in the search text box)
other locations on the map to search people density.
The app has a button to change the map to satellite mode
(map button in white circle) and a button to get back to
current location on the map (location button in white circle),
due to the fact that the map can change after a search.
Fig. 1. Clustering people counted from the same location.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Miami University Libraries. Downloaded on June 15,2021 at 08:01:12 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
On Fig. 2 it can be seen a zoomed map. The zoomed map
changes the cluster of people from the blue circle in
individual shown by red pins.
If clicking on any of the red pins, it can show the address
of the person sharing his location.
The map also shows traffic activity in the region, green
meaning no traffic and red meaning big traffic.
The zoomed map has also two new functions.
One of them is “Directions” whit the curved arrow in the
blue background, which can computed distances and show
directions between two points on the map.
The other is the Google Maps icon, which can take the
user to the Google Maps app.
The crowd density checker works the following way:
each person’s location (who chooses to share their location)
is uploaded on a database anonymously, than the app reads
the locations of all people from the database and shows them
on a Google map in clusters.
This way it can be seen how many persons are in certain
place, based on a fact that almost any persona has a mobile
device with GPS and as many people as possible installed the
app.
Fig. 2. Zooming in and seeing peoples location separately.
 On Fig. 3 it can be seen the map with a cluster of people
in satellite mode.
The satellite mode and normal map mode can be toggled
with the map button with white circle background.
Satellite view can help see locations better, especially
when zoomed.
The satellite view has also the live traffic overlaid.
In satellite view mode the search is possible, to find
clusters of people in other locations too.
The current location button with white circle background
is also functional in order to back get to the current location
after search, when the map will be shifted.

Fig. 4. Searching for other locations on the map.

On Fig. 5 it can be seen the search drop down list with

Fig. 3. Viewing map in satellite view.
On Fig. 4 it can be seen the search box of the map.
The search has also an exit function which can be
accessed with the left arrow.
The search is actually a “Fragment” which can include
the Google Maps search in our Android app.
The search “Fragment” can make auto complete and
search suggestions with Google Search Engine, way better
than any self made search for Google Maps.
search suggestions of actual location on the map, where even
the country is indicated of all suggested cities.
The search has also a back button to return to the maps
and a clear button to clear all contents of the textbox by
tapping on the “X” sign.
If the suggestions are many, it can be scrolled among
them and it can be chosen the best matching item.
When the user taps on one of the items it automatically
fills-in the search box and the map shift to the searched
location.
If there are users having the crowd density app installed,
than the map will show clusters of people in blue circles.
This way, after zooming, the user will know which places to
avoid or not, due to the fact that there are big crowds.
The app needs GPS and internet connectivity via Wi-Fi
or Mobile data, due to the fact that it uses Google Maps.
The app does not work in offline mode; it cannot
download Google Maps and use them in offline mode and
also cannot upload or download people location form the
server.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Miami University Libraries. Downloaded on June 15,2021 at 08:01:12 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 If no internet connection is detected, a warning is shown
in a “Toast” message.
Fig. 5. Searching for New York on the map.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this work it was presentedan app where the people’s
location is mapped.This app is based on the fact almost any
person on the globe owns a smartphone with GPS function
and if the phone is located, the person owning it is located
too.
It is useful to know where is a bigger crowd, this way to
avoid or not bigger crowds. It is useful to be avoided if the
app user is in a hurry, like avoiding crowds in supermarkets
or even traffic jams. Sometimes it is needed to not avoid
crowds, because good concerts or good pubs have big
crowds.
With this app it can be checked the density of people on
the whole globe, the only need is to be installed by as many
users as possible. This can be done if the app is made as an
extension of an already installed app (like Facebook) or to be
installed on the phone by default (to be included in the
Android distribution).
Authorized licensed use limited to: Miami University Libraries. Downloaded on June 15,2021 at 08:01:12 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Further enhancement can be made, to port the app on
other platforms too, like iOS, not only on Android, this way
to have a bigger coverage of people’s location.
This appit is one good way to track big crowds, because
GPS implants are not yet welcomed.
REFERENCES
[1] Alberto Torres Angonese, Paulo Fernando Ferreira Rosa, “Integration
of People Detection and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
Systems for an Autonomous Robotic Platform,” XIII Latin American
Robotics Symposium and IV Brazilian Robotics Symposium
(LARS/SBR), 2016, pp. 251–256.
[2] Kuo-Hua Lo, Jen-Hui Chuang, “View-invariant measure of line
correspondence and its application in people localization,” 19th IEEE
International Conference on Image Processing, 2012, pp. 1985–1988.
[3] Chun-Chieh Hsu, Hua-Tsung Chen, Wen-Jiin Tsai,Suh-Yin Lee,
“Fast multi-view people localization using a torso-high reference
plane,” IEEE Visual Communications and Image Processing (VCIP),
2017, pp. 1–4.
[4] Alberto Torres Angonese, Paulo Fernando Ferreira Rosa, “Multiple
people detection and identification system integrated with a dynamic
simultaneous localization and mapping system for an autonomous
mobile robotic platform,” International Conference on Military
Technologies (ICMT), 2017, pp. 779–786.
[5] Yen-Shuo Lin, Hua-Tsung Chen, Jen-Hui Chuang, “An efficient
probabilistic occupancy map-based people localization approach,”
Visual Communications and Image Processing (VCIP), 2015, pp. 1–4.
[6] Kuo-Hua Lo, Jen-Hui Chuang, “Vanishing point-based line sampling
for efficient axis-based people localization,” 18th IEEE International
Conference on Image Processing, 2011, pp. 521–524.
[7] YassenDobrev, Martin Vossiek, Denys Shmakov, “A bilateral 24
GHz wireless positioning system for 3D real-time localization of
people and mobile robots,” IEEE MTT-S International Conference on
Microwaves for Intelligent Mobility (ICMIM), 2015, pp. 1–4.
[8] Kuo-Hua Lo, Chih-Jung Wang, Jen-Hui Chuang,Hua-Tsung Chen,
“Acceleration of vanishing point-based line sampling scheme for
people localization and height estimation via 3D line sampling,”
Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Pattern
Recognition (ICPR), 2012, pp. 2788–2791.
[9] Chin-Wei Liu,Hua-Tsung Chen, Kuo-Hua Lo, Chih-Jung Wang, Jen-
Hui Chuang, “Accelerating Vanishing Point-Based Line Sampling
Scheme for Real-Time People Localization,” IEEE Transactions on
Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 27 (3), 2017, pp.
409–420.
[10] ÁkosUtasi,CsabaBenedek, “A Bayesian Approach on People
Localization in Multicamera Systems,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits
and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 23 (1), 2013, pp. 105–115.
[11] Percy W. Lovon-Ramos, Yessica Rosas-Cuevas, Claudia Cervantes-
Jilaja, Maria Tejada-Begazo, Raquel E. Patiño-Escarcina, Dennis
Barrios-Aranibar, “People Detection and Localization in Real Time
during Navigation of Autonomous Robots,” XIII Latin American
Robotics Symposium and IV Brazilian Robotics Symposium
(LARS/SBR), 2016, pp. 239–244.
[12] Yen-Shuo Lin,Kuo-Hua Lo, Hua-Tsung Chen, Jen-Hui Chuang, “VP-
transform: A novel vanishing point-based image transform for
enhancement of people localization,” IEEE International Conference
on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), 2013, pp. 1–6.
[13] Yen-Shuo Lin, Kuo-Hua Lo, Hua-Tsung Chen, Jen-Hui Chuang,
“Vanishing Point-Based Image Transforms for Enhancement of
Probabilistic Occupancy Map-Based People Localization,” IEEE
Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 23 (12), 2014, pp. 5586–5598.
[14] He Li, Lai Zhijian, “The study and implementation of mobile GPS
navigation system based on Google Maps,” International Conference
on Computer and Information Application, 2010, pp. 87–90.
[15] Nitesh M Tarbani, A.S. Alvi, “Use of global positioning system
(GPS) to track movement of mobile node in proxy mobile Internet
protocol version 6(PMIPv6),” International Conference on Advances
in Computer Engineering and Applications, 2015, pp. 808–811.
[16] Raj Kishen Moloo, Varun Kumar Digumber, “Low-Cost Mobile GPS
Tracking Solution,” International Conference on Business Computing
and Global Informatization, 2011, pp. 516–519.