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Updated: Mar 27, 2026

Combining Eye-tracking Data with an Analysis of Video Content from Free-viewing a Video of a Walk in an Urban Park Environment
Published on: May 7, 2019
Visual influence networks in walking crowds
Kei Yoshida1, Mario di Bernardo2,3, William H Warren1
1Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
None:
Collective motion in animal groups emerges from local visual interactions, but the network structure underlying human crowd dynamics remains unexplored. Here, we develop a method to reconstruct dynamic visual influence networks from motion-capture data on walking human crowds, using the time-dependent delayed directional correlation with visibility constraints, specifically visual field size and visual occlusion. We introduce two network measures, direct influence (local leadership) and branching influence (global leadership), that reveal distinct spatial gradients. Front-positioned individuals exert greater global influence than rear-positioned ones, and such spatial position explains a substantial proportion of leadership variance in the group. The results show why a small number of individuals can influence the motion of large crowds. These findings establish quantitative principles for crowd networks that parallel leadership hierarchies in animal flocks, while providing evidence-based foundations for human crowd management strategies.
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