Smart Lost & Found with Edge AI

Our project, Lost and Found, is an Edge AI-powered civic tech solution aimed at helping people during large gatherings like the Nashik and Ujjain Mahakumbh. It focuses on quickly reuniting lost individuals, especially children and the elderly, with their families by using AI, IoT, and real-time crowd monitoring.

Why did we decide to create it? Every Kumbh Mela attracts millions of visitors. Unfortunately, thousands get separated or go missing in the huge crowds. Traditional methods, such as announcements and police registers, are slow and inefficient. They often leave families anxious for hours or even days. We aimed to build a fast, reliable, and scalable system that uses AI at the edge to process visual and audio data locally, even in areas with low connectivity.

How does it work?

Edge AI Cameras and Hubs are deployed at key points, including entry gates, temples, ghats, and shelters, to detect and recognize lost individuals in real time.

Face and Attribute Recognition: The system uses AI models optimized for Jetson Orin Nano or NX to identify age, gender, clothing color, and other features without needing cloud connectivity.

Citizen and Police App: Families can report a missing person with a photo, which is matched against live video streams.

Alerts and Notifications: When a match is found, nearby authorities receive instant alerts with location details, enabling quick action.

Data Privacy and Security: All AI processing occurs on the edge device, ensuring low latency and compliance with data protection.

This way, our solution transforms a chaotic manual process into a structured, tech-driven system, providing families with peace of mind and easing the burden on authorities.