Title of Invention: Watawakkal: Performing Umrah & Hajj Rituals Delegated and Monitored Remotely using Artificial

Intelligence

1. A system for facilitating the delegation of performing Islamic religious rituals of Umrah & Hajj assisted with Artificial Intelligence. The system facilitates the remote participation by delegation of a plurality of seasonal pilgrims throughout preset ritual locations in the Holy Cities of Saudi Arabia to the extent of providing efficient guidance and optimal routing for the pilgrims/delegates/performers. The system adopts Hijri calendar as the timeframe for performing the Islamic religious rituals of Hajj and Umrah in accordance with the Islamic sharia law. Annual pilgrimage (Hajj) ritual in Saudi Arabia in the cities of Makkah and Al Madinah Al Munawwarah are visited by almost two million pilgrims over a seasonal period of 2-3 weeks. According to the Saudi General Authority of Statistics (https ://www. stats . gov.sa/en/28) in 2023 approximately 1,845,045 persons performed Hajj rituals and in 2018 approximately 2,371,675 pilgrims performed the Hajj ritual simultaneously during the 2-3 weeks period of Hajj inside precise regions and following exact ritual procedures and steps. On the other hand, during the whole year of 2022 more than twenty-four million persons performed Umrah rituals.

The system facilitates travelling and optimal guidance to a vast number of delegate pilgrims (pilgrims/delegates/performers) from various countries worldwide. The system implements a procedure of steps as guidance throughout the ritual of Hajj and Umrah guiding the pilgrims/delegates/performers to the correct ritual procedures and locations where the pilgrimage is to be conducted. The delegate(pilgrims/delegates/performers) is hereby delegated by the remote requester to performing Umrah or Hajj on their behalf. The pilgrims/delegates/performers get paid for this physical service on behalf of the remote requester through the system by means of standard secure i

SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) instantaneous money transfer protocols. The service requested by the client (the remote requester) and offered by the system is compliant with the Islamic Sharia law as it allows performance of Islamic pilgrimage (Hajj or Umrah) to those unable to attend in presence due to physical disability, old age, travel constriction of any kind, presence-demanding nature of work, financial limitations, or sickness. It is important to note that Islamic scholars have consensual agreement that such a service is permissible for the physically challenged, sick, aged, or constricted in travel who cannot perform Hajj or Umrah rituals and can do so by proxy or using delegation to another person with or without financial compensation.

The remote system allows far-off users, who are unable to attend Hajj or Umrah due to physical disability, old-age, sickness, or any other limitation to connect to pilgrims/delegates/performers with whom the user can delegate their Hajj or Umrah rituals to. Thus, allowing the delegated pilgrim to perform the rituals of Hajj and Umrah remotely. The system facilitates the transactional nature of the service between the pilgrims/delegates/performers and client while keeping complete anonymity; The system acts as a mediator between the pilgrims/delegates/performers and client, masking the identities of both parties under all times through standard secure protocols. The system has embedded steps and algorithms of the rituals with different scenarios for initiation zones (Al Mawaqeet). The far-off user remotely connects to the pilgrims/delegates/performers and monitors the performing of the rituals both geo positioned and in time thus in a spatio-temporal frame using geo positioning algorithms and fencing of ritual-strict regions (region of interests, ROI). When the rituals are complete, the remote user is notified regarding completion.

The performing of the ritual is verifiable using geolocation tracking of the pilgrims/delegates/performers monitored by the service requester and by a monitoring algorithm based on artificial intelligence. The algorithm monitors the proximity of the pilgrims/delegates/performers and motion-movement tendency towards completing each strict step of the ritual. The system uses

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) predefined geo-polygons to determine the geo-fenced regions of interest. The geo-polygons are captured based on GIS data to digitise polygons and lines for Geofencing purposes of the strict ritual-region of interests. This is achieved in accordance with the rituals by a mathematical model that finds the mean of likelihood true trend presence for proper systematic execution of the rituals. The algorithm can handle deviations outside the standard ritual steps. The algorithm can adjust to breaks taken by the pilgrims/delegates/performers, such as the pilgrims/delegates/performers stepping out for a short break to use the comfort facilities, or for refreshments. The algorithm uses deep neural networks for suggesting k-means for routing the pilgrims/delegates/performers to the shortest paths with a plural of cost functions (time, distance, congestions, safety, and expenses) or combinations of the aforementioned to reach initiation zones and different regions of interest. Due to the existence of walls and upper floors inside Masjid Al Haram it may be difficult to track the pilgrims/delegates/performers using the standard GPS locating protocol. On the other hand, Wi-Fi access point provides alternative possibilities for indoor geo positioning and navigation. However, its accuracy limits the range of possible applications. The error in determining the position, depends on several factors. Such factors include the bandwidth of the RF signal, delay of the signal due to the high relative permittivity of construction materials, and the geometry-dependent “noise gain” of position determination. Errors in distance measurements have unusual properties and exhibit non-systematic errors of non-Gaussian response due to the complexity of the construction material used to build the walls or the angle of signal approach which comprises a multitude of deviations. Bayesian Indoor localization systems used for the position estimation utilize the Bayesian filtering technique to deal with the uncertainty accumulated by noisy sensor measurements. The error is reduced by incorporating another source of information, typically more sensor or frequency data. In this application a multitude of positioning frequencies are implemented generating a vector of positioning data. Therefore, a special algorithm based on Bayesian-centroid-deep Neural Networks is implemented

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) by the system which utilises the superimposing of several positioning state estimators based on a vector of positioning resulting in a differential positioning vector combining the technologies of: GPS, Wi-Fi positioning, OB Frequency positioning, Bluetooth positioning, Aerial positioning, and Marine positioning.

The system allows for an artificially intelligent Hajj or Umrah monitoring system that does not require manual feedback from the pilgrims/delegates/performers regarding the benchmarks of the rituals, such as number of Tawaf or laps performed. The system automatically determines the progress of completion and transmits it back to the remote service requester, thus achieving a Hands-free Umrah with real-time monitoring.

The system provides full authentication of the Hajj or Umrah service, providing detailed feedback regarding the correct steps, sequence, and timely performance of the Hajj or Umrah while constantly checking for errors made by the pilgrims/delegates/performers. An additional algorithm is embedded for monitoring failure scenarios extensively, such that in the event of an error made by the pilgrims/delegates/performers, which could pose as a violation of the Islamic Sharia law thus voiding the Hajj or Umrah; The algorithm triggers a notification requiring the correction and alerts the perform of the deviations where an artificial intelligence system for compensating human error adjusts the course. The system can cancel violating rituals, during such an event it automatically reassigns a new ritual pilgrims/delegates/performer.

The system is equipped to detect and prohibit other violations that could void the Hajj or Umrah, performed in accordance with Islamic Sharia law. Such violations include the performing of more than one ritual at a given time, by the pilgrims/delegates/performers. The system employs advanced probabilistic models alongside targeted location tracking, to detect whether more than one phone is used by a pilgrims/delegates/performer at a given time; as the occurrence of such an event would be a violation under Islamic Sharia law. Once the Al authenticates the performed ritual the

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) pilgrims/delegates/performers get paid immediately through secure channels by means of standard international transfer protocols.

The system provides huge economic opportunities benefiting the ritual providers as it opens a huge job market providing an accessible source of added income with minimal capital investment; since all it requires is a smart phone, which are readily available. The system facilitates the transactional nature of the service between the pilgrims/delegates/performers and client while keeping complete anonymity; The system acts as a mediator between the pilgrims/delegates/performers and client, masking the identities of both parties under all times through standard secure protocols. An embedded dashboard method manages the simultaneous requests and pilgrims/delegates/performers positioning data with continuous digital interaction while constantly connecting to the authorities for updates about congestions, state-of emergency, and safest paths for crowd management. As mentioned previously, more than 2 million Muslims (a figure which is expected to rise) from all over the world with diverse backgrounds and ethnicities, head to the city of Makkah during the 2-3 weeks of Hajj rituals; this raises the probability of congestions. The system includes awareness of ongoing states of emergency, and hazards affecting pilgrims such as, medical outbreaks, extreme weather, and crowd stampedes. The latter being a risky trend; according to al Riyadh newspaper (https://www.alriyadh.com/) in 2015, 717 ritual pilgrims/delegates/ performers lost their lives due to a crowd stampede, and 863 were injured. This is an important aspect of the system, as the safety of the pilgrims is vital.

The dashboard implements big-data analysis for detecting and predicting crowd congestion in real-time during the large gatherings of Hajj or Umrah. These implementations typically involve the use of positioning data and pedestrian trajectory data. The acquired data is extracted and aggregated to generate a congestion detection region or weight map which reveals the degree of crowd congestion in a given geographic region. Approaches such as crowd-data-sourcing analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) can be used to better detect and predict crowd congestion in real-time for large gatherings. This achieved through the use of predictive analytics based on a machine-learning data set, trained with Real-time data of the pilgrims/delegates/performers of the rituals. The system relays back their trajectory within the crowd while performing the rituals, outlining disruptions, and using the feedback data to create data clustering and support vector machines to monitor crowd size, movement patterns and other factors to better predict potential delays and disruptions, and re-routing the ritual pilgrims/delegates/performers path accordingly. The pilgrims/delegates/performers are notified of any route changes if such an event occurs and receive feedback from the system; which updates the available route data. The dashboard features a content-aware system for storing events relevant to the ritual completion process, indexed with a date and time footprint to allow organized data analysis and processing. It also features, the ability for the client to access the complete path of the ritual journey, journey, undertaken by the pilgrims/delegates/performers, stored in the form of GPS tracking vector, this is meanwhile convenient whilst the authorities of Hajj & Umrah prohibit usage of live streaming in Holy sites. This is made available for later viewing by the client as vectors or projections on the region’s map. An especially useful feature for clients who are unable to view the performing of Hajj or Umrah ritual in real-time.

The dashboard also includes a pilgrims/delegates/performers-rating and certification system powered by artificial intelligence. The system provides the clients with a certificate that includes photographic verification upon the correct completion of the rituals by the pilgrims/delegates/performers, according to Sharia Law.

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