Shafaqna English – The Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering published the paper “Progress of IoT Research Technologies and Applications Serving Hajj and Umrah,” written by Mohd Khaled Shambour and Adnan Gutub in 2022.
According to Shafaqna, this research represented an analytical study of the technologies and their applications in the Hajj and Umrah system during five years (2016–2020).
IoT technologies and their applications have gained tangible attention in the Hajj and Umrah crowd systems, whose impact is evident in many places in the two holy cities, Mecca and Medina, including the two holy mosques, the holy sites, galleries, libraries, and museums.
Here are some research ideas and practical suggestions for using technology to facilitate services for pilgrims, Umrah performers, visitors, and service providers.
- Smart screen devices: The use of smart portable screen devices to eliminate the cases of losing pilgrims and Umrah performers. Screen devices are being distributed in special places in the two holy cities, to help people know where they live in case they get lost. Where the missing person uses the bracelet on the device using (NFC) technology, and the device draws a path from his current location to the desired location using a map and estimates the distance and expected arrival time.
- Monitoring system for abnormal events: There are several surveillance cameras used in the two holy mosques and the holy sites that perform various security tasks. To monitor all events through cameras, it requires follow-up, focus and great effort on the part of the observers. However, observers may not be able to notice an abnormal event early on, which in turn delays the action to prevent a problem.
- Smart parking system: Developing interactive devices at the main exits leading to large car parks, such as the car parks in Medina, which helps to identify the vehicle parking location via the vehicle plate number. The devices display the vehicle’s image and guide the user to where the vehicle is parked by means of an interactive map on the screen, besides informing the driver of his/her current location.
- Cluster system: A tree-shaped cluster application is developed to organize small groups of Hajj and Umrah performers, each group includes 50–100 people supervised by a leader who has direct contact with them. The leader directs and identifies members of small groups, and easily locates each group member. The next level is between executives at a higher level, and so on, to facilitate communication and coordination between all pilgrims and Umrah performers, to find lost individuals, and to facilitate movement and mobility.
- Smart buildings: Expanding the use of the smart building concept using Internet of Things technology. This comes by automatically and smartly controlling the functions and state of the buildings through sensors that track the buildings’ condition, as these sensors provide the necessary data required to automatically control the level of comfort and improve the use of available resources (such as energy and water), besides securing the place and maintaining the safety of its residents.
- Data and artificial intelligence technologies: Extracting different types of data such as tracking crowds, traffic congestion levels, street and road conditions, environmental conditions, and many others, as these data are processed with artificial intelligence techniques to reach solutions that support decision-makers.
Source: Researchgate