Slashdot Mirror
Coming Soon, Roadcasting
ByteWoopy writes "from Wired.com 'Stuck in traffic and sick of Howard Stern, you may soon be able to tune in to the music collection of the person in the car in front of you. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing an ad hoc networking system for cars that would allow any driver to broadcast music to any other vehicle within a 30-mile radius. Developed by a group of current and former master's students at the Human Computer Interaction Institute, the Roadcasting project would allow drivers to stream their MP3 music collections by Wi-Fi or similar technology to any other vehicle within range that is equipped with compatible hardware and software.
'"
...if the hot chick in the Benz starts playing "Naughty Girl" when I tune in, then I should take it as an invitation to follow her home?
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This is what you would call a Vehicle-Area Network, or VAN for short.
Cory Doctorow's Eastern Standard Tribe had essentially the same system described. I wonder if these chaps got their inspiration from EST, or if it's a case of life imitating art.
This is kind of like social networking, only without all the hassle of being social.
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hey, welcome to traffic jams from station 620-LPT, the black thunderbird! It's 5:30 PM and how's your coolant level? We've got the Smiths coming up, but first, the driver of the Red Explorer, your left turn signal has been on for the past two miles, are you turning any day now? [cue music]
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Of course, the FCC and RIAA will be all over this.
'Public performance'
'clogging the spectrum'
'private radio stations'
May be a good concept, but the implementation will be a bitch.
I'm just picturing transmissions such as:
"And this next song goes out to the owner of the white Ford Mustang, license plate A3G-D92, who just cut me off in traffic.
(song "I Hope You Die" kicks in: "I hope ya flip some guy the bird, He cuts you off and you're forced to swerve, In front of the beatles' tour bus, A bookmobile and a mack truck...")
Aeris Died For Your Sins.
Instead of a point-to-point application, this tech must become a P2P medium to have any value. Not only do populations of neighboring cars change constantly, quickly, and with little warning (use your blinkers!), but who wants to interact with the mostly random person in the car next to you? Maybe a cocommuter friend somewhere else in a 15-minute pod of traffic, but not the mostly random guy picking his nose and karaoking to "Sister Christian" in the Hyundai that just cut you off.
Meshes of short-range, low-power highway devices can, instead, form a medium layer in a TCP/IP network. Nothing about the neighboring cars' identity matters, just that they support the protocol, and have enough spatial density. Then they can bridge the gap to high bandwidth hops to the Internet. Along the way, they can aggregate traffic data, which can inform traffic jockeys and drivers to optimize flow (though, ironically, reduce necessary density). This project is a nice demo, but it needs to get buried in the protocol stack before the rubber really meets the road.
--
make install -not war
Great! I'm loading mine with Barbera Striesland outtakes, Yoko Ono, Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, Melt Banana, Whitney Houston, some Pia Zadora, and as much Tiny Tim as I can find! Then I'm taking over the highways and freeways like Max before me!
O ULDN'TITBELOOOOOOOOVERLYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIEA IEAIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can imagine other drivers ceeding the right of way as they scramble at their dials to disable "auto download" whenever I get near. Or even better, I'll take a small boombox and crank ghetto rap, Phish Bootlegs, rare techno remixes, and other stuff to get noticed. THEN they get -Kazaa! - SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHW
About time guerilla warfare techniques had application on the open road.
Because you have not inserted enough buzzwords into the concept.
WiFi
ad hoc network
*casting
nodes
mesh
I could go on, but you get the idea.
I've driven to Defcon a few times and there's a somewhat official convoy which travels from California to Vegas, this convoy has it's own radio station which is usually better than anything you can get on commercial stations ;-)
;-)
I remember once getting left behind - my then girlfriend (now wife) wanted to get in&out burger, and we had to catch up. Being a DJ I'd submitted a mix to desertcrossing radio, and it was scheduled to be played before we got to vegas. So I spent the next hour or so racing to catch up and get back in radio range. We did get back in time to hear my slot, and we were greeted with the sight of 50+ cars all string out on a hill in front of us with their hazard lights blinking.
Easily my favourite Defcon moment
How about creating some device that will let iPod users listen to their own music? Some sort of personal speaker system that pumps their music directly into their own ears, so no one else can hear it, so it bothers no one else, that allows them the flexibility to listen to their particular style of music? There *must* be some way to do this!
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
I don't believe the 30 miles radius bullshit.
I'd believe 30 meters, but not 30 miles.
What do you bet that the reporter saw 30 m and took the m to be miles, not meters?