Humanising Autonomy, a predictive AI company improving synergy between urban mobility systems and people, today announced a partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) that will improve the safety of passengers and staff at critical public transport interchanges. Humanising Autonomy’s behavioural video analytics software will be deployed as a part of TfGM’s coronavirus response. The analysis will aid TfGM in understanding social distancing implications, enable assessment of how passenger behaviour is affected by the pandemic, and understand how infrastructure is used. The project was awarded funding as a part of the Innovate UK COVID-19 Rapid Response Competition.
Humanising Autonomy’s cloud analytics software will analyse video footage from existing CCTV infrastructure at Bolton and Wythenshawe interchanges and Wigan bus station to study the behaviours of pedestrians and transport users. The analysis dashboard will enable TfGM to understand situations where social distancing adherence is challenging and provide insights into the number of people in groups and their directional movement.
Furthermore, TfGM will benefit from data collected over time, which can be used to better understand the capacity for walking, cycling and how space is used at transport interchanges.
“TfGM’s partnership with Humanising Autonomy takes advantage of the anonymised, GDPR-compliant data they collect. By overlaying pre-existing CCTV footage with our predictive AI software we can provide fast, accurate insights into how society is functioning under social distancing measures,” says Leslie Nooteboom, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Humanising Autonomy. “We’re thrilled to work with TfGM to provide valuable data insights, which will see Greater Manchester return to a safer, more efficient new normal post-pandemic by providing the Facilities Management team with behavioural insights and temporal analysis at the three busiest interchanges across GM.”
Nicola Kane, Head of Strategic Planning, Insight and Innovation at TfGM, said: “The partnership with Humanising Autonomy will allow us to develop effective transport improvements to support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, quickly and efficiently, based on real-world intelligence.” Nicola continues, “We are always looking for new and innovative ways to prioritise the safety of our staff and passengers, whilst respecting passengers’ privacy; and are hopeful the solution will facilitate effective social distancing on the transport network.”
Both partners are committed to respecting data privacy and individual rights. Stringent data management and protection measures were specifically developed for this project. The project is GDPR compliant and does not collect name, contact information or identify passengers, offering the data subject rights that you would expect from a responsible partnership.