A Model for Tracking People and Property in Crowds

Getting lost or loosing personal belongings in a crowded event is a common problem whose frequency depends on the level of congestion of the crowding. There are many regular crowded evens where this problem persists and creates personal and social upheaval, which, if not resolved, may tarnish the image of the organizers and administrators. One such event is the annual pilgrimage of Hajj, which attracts millions of pilgrims from different parts of the globe to Makkah (Mecca) in Saudi Arabia. Although there are other regular events which attracts much more participants but none of them is as complex as the Hajj. Besides Hajj, Makkah also witnesses large crowding of pilgrims in the holy month of Ramadan. During these events, some of the pilgrims get lost and are unable to reach back to their places of stay. Many of the pilgrims loose their belongings including documents like passport etc. In this article we propose an integrated management model to solve this problem. The proposed model is based on a web system and a mobile application that use maps and location service, in addition to the use of smart IoT tools, especially RFID Tags and Readers for monitoring and tracking. The system would help individuals to search and retrieve their missing items from the service centers easily, or navigate them to the nearest center for reporting and claiming found items. The proposed model will add a new service to be provided by the event management to help the pilgrims in the sacred journey. This model can be adapted to any crowded event be it regular or irregular.