In recent years we have seen multiple incidents with a large number of people injured and killed by one or more armed attackers. Since this type of violence is difficult to predict, detecting threats as early as possible allows to generate early warnings and reduce response time. In this context, any tool to check and compare different action protocols can be a further step in the direction of saving lives. Our proposal combines features from continuous and discrete models to obtain the best of both worlds in order to simulate large and crowded spaces where complex behavior individuals interact. With this proposal we aim to provide a tool for testing different security protocols under several emergency scenarios, where spaces, hazards, and population can be customized. Finally, we use a proof of concept implementation of this model to test specific security protocols under emergency situations for real spaces. Specifically, we test how providing some users of a university college with an app that informs about the type and characteristics of the ongoing hazard, affects in the safety performance.

The growth of the Internet has led to the emergence of servers that perform increasingly heavy tasks. Some servers must remain active 24 h a day, but the evolution of network cards has facilitated the use of Data Processing Units (DPUs) to reduce network traffic and alleviate server workloads. This capability makes DPUs good candidates for load alleviation in systems that perform continuous data processing when the data can be pre-filtered. Computer vision systems that use some form of artificial intelligence, such as facial recognition or weapon detection, tend to have high workloads and high power consumption, which is becoming increasingly costly. Reducing the workload is therefore desirable and possible in some scenarios. The main contributions of this study are threefold: (1) to explore the potential benefits of using a DPU to alleviate the workload of a 24-h active server; (2) to present a study that measures the workload reduction of a CCTV weapon detection system and evaluate its performance under different conditions. We observed a 43,123% reduction in workload over the 24 h of video used in the experimentation, reaching more than 98% savings during night hours, which significantly reduces system stress and has a direct impact on electrical energy expenditure; and 3) to provide a framework that can be adapted to other computer vision-based detection systems.