Using Public Surveillance to Track Pedestrian Congestion

Jessica Leber writes about a new startup called Placemeter, which "is working to cobble together video feeds from different sources and cover all or most of New York City’s sidewalks and public spaces within the next year or so." With the data, Placemeter hopes to provide residents with real time congestion information, including, for example, "how long the line is for a cronut."

Placemeter is still far from comprehensive in its coverage of New York City, however. "Placemeter needs about 2,000 to 3,000 well-placed cameras to cover 90% of the city, and so far the company has access to about 500," reports Leber.

The 500 cameras already employed by Placemeter are the result of "a partnership with New York City to more easily access its publicly available traffic camera feeds as well as [Placemeter's] work with live webcam sites like Earthcam."