Researchers from Warwick University analysed geo-tagged tweets and mobile phone use over a two-month period in Milan and were able to estimate attendance numbers for football matches.
They used the San Siro Stadium and Linate Airport – locations with known numbers of visitors – to conduct the study and found that mobile activity rose and fell in close step with the flow of people.
The scientists said the analysis could help measure unpredicted events like evacuations, crowd disasters or protests.
“We found that this automatically generated data provides an excellent basis for estimating the size of a crowd,” said Federico Botta, a co-author of the study. “Quick and accurate measurements of crowd size could be of vital use for police and other authorities charged with avoiding crowd disasters.”
But other researchers said there were limitations and biases with this type of data, because only parts of population...