Creating Safer Crowded Places in Sydney Olympic Park

Lead: Sydney Olympic Park Authority 

Collaborators: 

• Dynamic Crowd Measurement (DCM)
• Department of Communities and Justice
• NSW Police.

The Creating Safer Crowded Places project intends to develop a complex, multi-modality sentiment score regression model. It will use the latest methods in machine learning and artificial intelligence, to improve decision making around public safety intervention, achieve efficiencies and ultimately an improved customer experience during major events at Sydney Olympic Park.  

The new technology builds on crowd modelling systems that draw data from SOPA’s existing CCTV network. This is aggregated with data from other sources (including social media and environmental systems) to alert to changes in customer sentiment, particularly during major events and instances of ‘crowded places’. This allows SOPA to guide proactive and early intervention, and support better public safety outcomes. 

To address risks relating to privacy and customer trust in technology in public spaces, the project has adopted the Digital Trust in Places and Routines (DTPR) standard and will join the DTPR coalition to bring in international expertise and case studies.  

DTPR is an emerging open-source ‘system-to-people’ visual communication standard for transparency and accountability around digital technology in the places where people live and work. It includes a standard dictionary of concepts around digital tech and data practices, and a standard set of icons and design patterns to quickly and clearly communicate those concepts.