“Real-Time Tracking and Visualizing of Sociability in Public Open Spaces”  by Gabriel Draughon, PhD candidate, Civil Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Social infrastructure (e.g., parks, community centers, libraries, public markets, transit hubs) is essential to support and encourage social interaction and organization. Furthermore, social infrastructure increases community members’ sense of belonging, security, and pride and attachment to place. This directly impacts community health, resilience, and overall wellbeing. However, social infrastructure is often underfunded and underutilized, especially in resource constrained communities.  To increase utility and use of social infrastructure it is necessary to better understand public interaction with these facilities. This work presents a computer-vision framework to continuously track user interaction and behavior in public open spaces (POS) – a subset of social infrastructure with open air environments (e.g., parks, markets, public squares). The framework delivers real-time performance metrics to park managers and community stakeholders, detailing patron use, movement, and social activity in the space. Real-time performance metrics inform operating decisions while historical data informs future design and planning. The framework is currently implemented in POS at the Detroit Riverfront and city center.

Gabriel is a PhD student in the Intelligent Systems program at the University of Michigan. He is from a small town in Georgia and was a first-generation college student at the University of Kentucky, where he earned his bachelor’s degree studying Biosystems Engineering. His research focuses on advancing smart & connected community technologies to better enable resilient and equitable social infrastructure design. In his time off, he enjoys travelling, mountain biking and hiking.