Towards sensing urban-scale COVID-19 policy compliance in new york city

Tahiya Chowdhury, Ansh Bhatti, Ilan Mandel, Taqiya Ehsan, Wendy Ju, Jorge Ortiz

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Big data on the urban scale can enable many applications for improving city life and provide a more holistic understanding of urban life to researchers. While there are approaches to sense and model urban occupant behaviors using sound, radio frequency, and vision, how such behaviors are altered due to city governance and policies in response to emergencies such as a natural disaster or a public health crisis has been less explored. In this paper, we present a computer vision-based approach to capture patterns and interference in the urban life of New York City dwellers from March 2020 to August 2020. Using ∼1 million images gathered with cameras mounted on ride-sharing vehicles throughout the city, we approximated the social proximity of pedestrians to understand policy compliance on the street. Our analysis reveals a correlation between policy violation and virus transmission. We believe that such big data-driven city-scale citizen modeling can inform policy design and crisis management schemes for urban scale smart infrastructure.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationBuildSys 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages353-356
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781450391146
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 17 2021
Event8th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments, BuildSys 2021 - Virtual, Online, Portugal
Duration: Nov 17 2021Nov 18 2021

Publication series

NameBuildSys 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments

Conference

Conference8th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments, BuildSys 2021
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityVirtual, Online
Period11/17/2111/18/21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Information Systems
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Building and Construction
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Architecture

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • people detection
  • public policy
  • urban sensing

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