Covid-19:
A Study of Social Distancing
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At the start of 2020, a novel Coronavirus surfaced, abruptly changing the lives of everyone. Due to how effectively this virus is able to spread, governments around the world were forced to take action. Without a vaccine, their most effective tool to keep society safe is social distancing. Social distancing is the act of keeping at least 6 feet between yourself and the people around you. By keeping your distance from other people you are creating a barrier overwhich the virus must cross inorder to infect you. For more information about social distancing check out the time line and our research tabs.
Our mission is to analyze worldwide network camera data and use it to quantify social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. By analyzing how different kinds of policies observed during the pandemic affects social distancing, we aim to generate insights into the best safety policies for future pandemics, and analyze the risk of a second wave of COVID-19.
Using our team's system of IP cameras and Live Stream Feeds from around the world, we have been able to utilize more than 30000 cameras to collect data. We are analyzing our collection of data by employing deep learning methods for scene classification, crowd density estimation, object detection, and distance estimation. The combination of these methods allow us to quantitatively understand the role social distancing has played in limiting the spread of Covid-19 in various city centers.