Techies aim to solve ancient Indian festival's safety woes

NASHIK, India (AP) — At an ancient Hindu riverside festival, the millions hoping to cleanse themselves of sin are also unwittingly helping to create high-tech solutions in crowd control, disease outbreak and public security.

A group of technology innovators has launched a digital information platform at the six-week Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival, that they say is helping to maintain order and calm among those camping near the river bank and piling into the water for one of humanity's largest religious gatherings.

[...] innovation and innovators are also always on a path of self-discovery, said Ramesh Raskar, associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, which has been leading scientists, charity workers and officials from around India in a two-year effort dubbed KumbhaThon to develop technology solutions to better manage population-dense events.

The digital platform, accessible by a free Android cellphone app, allows authorities and festival-goers in the central Indian city of Nashik to collect, view and share data about festival food carts, traffic jams and the location of porta-potties or medical tents, giving users an up-to-date record of what's happening and where.

Using cellphone power data to estimate crowd sizes, the digital platform also gives officials information that helps them decide when to put up blockades or disperse crowds.

High-tech solutions have increasingly provided India's hundreds of millions of poor with lifestyle solutions — for example, giving them cellphones in places without landlines, or solar power for communities not yet hooked to the electricity grid.