KTN-iX challenge: Monitoring Movement in Crowds

Applicants are required to demonstrate late-stage research or commercial solutions. This research will only be looking at the movement of people in scenarios where public safety is at risk, and data will be anonymised to protect privacy.

The Challenge

It is difficult and time-consuming to oversee a large number of people to understand how they are behaving. There are specific situations when this is important. For example, at major events to see where crowds are gathering so organisers can proactively respond to disperse them or open more gates. In the current pandemic, overseeing specific situations could provide a better understanding of how well social distancing is being complied with, and identify hotspots for virus transmission.

Ethical questions will need to be addressed within this work, particularly about how data will be anonymised to protect an individual’s privacy.

HMG would like to hear from innovative companies from the following sectors

• Transport systems
• Events & crowd management
• Health & safety
• Security & defence
• Urban systems

Specific topics we would like to discuss with private sector innovators include (among others):

• Solutions which can provide individual trajectories including position, direction, orientation and velocity.
• Machine learning application to this approach to describe ‘normal’ situations, and capability to classify them against external factors; weather, time of day etc.
• Novel data sources alongside data assimilation techniques which provide measurable improvements on analysis of large spaces.

Any tools developed should consider and apply where appropriate, advice and guidance published by the National Cyber Security Centre . HMG will only contract with organisations who are Cyber Essentials accredited.

This research will only be looking at the movement of people in scenarios where public safety is at risk, and data will be anonymised to protect privacy.

IP and Potential Commercial Route 

This iX challenge represents an opportunity for innovative organisations to discuss their technology with HMG which, through the various constituent departments, could lead to national and international opportunities.

Existing background IP associated with a potential solution will remain with Solution Provider(s). Where any new IP generation is envisaged, it will be subject to the mutual IP agreement of the Solution Provider(s) and Innovation Challenger.

Any commercial deployment of transferred solution or newly developed solution, through licensing, joint venture, partnership or direct investment, will be subject to the commercial agreement between the Solution Provider(s) and Innovation Challenger.

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) must be signed to uphold confidentiality in the engagement between the Solution Provider(s) and Innovation Challenger.