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MIT Researches Map Cell Phone Usage
stlhawkeye writes "MIT researchers with the Mobile Landscape Projects have mapped a city based on cell phone usage. The article includes a map of Graz, Austria with a color-coded overlay indicating cell phone usage in various parts of the city. Using call origin and destination data, they are able to not only reverse-engineer a topographic map of the geography and landscape, but one of phone usage as well. The implications of the research have practical applications in law enforcement, emergency management, and traffic management. There are also, of course, privacy implications."
The correct address for MIT's "Mobile Landscape" project can be found here.
TLoM: Nerds + DDR + Rednecks for the win!
I work in cellular infrastructure design so I have a clue about what these researchers do & don't have available.
They wouldn't be able to eavesdrop on your call given the type of data this article says they have available. They only have access to some of the call statistics (location, origination, termination, etc...) and are nowhere near the pipe that is carrying the bits that make up your voice or data.
graz has been the cultural capital of europe back in 2003. since then, new media arts activities in and around graz are quite impressive.
besides, the current saturation of austria's cell phone market is above 83%, mobilkom austria has a market share of ~41%. i think this provides a good situation for researchers.
... but the girls and the styrian beer are good reasons anyway.
Cellular infrastructure guy again...
You better believe they care! One of our biggest problems is to help our customers keep the failed call attemps & dropped calls to an absolute minimum. There is tremendous competition between the infrastructure vendors in this area.
The volume of data recorded for each call (or attempted call) is vast including cell site ID, cell sector the access was attempted on, received RF strength (by both cell site AND by the mobile and in much better resolution than those silly bars you see on your screen), RF quality measurements, system resources that were assigned to the call, etc... However, it is a fact that the RF environment is really ugly. You have multipath that changes constantly, line of site that is constantly partially blocked by buildings, trees (you should see what happens to call statistics when trees leaf out in the spring!!!), big trucks, etc... Depending on the cellular technology, you have more or less trouble with interference from other mobiles, your distance to the cell site(s), neon signs, & so on. Even your speed of travel can make a difference.
It would cost way too much to have absolutely perfect coverage everywhere. Trust me, if anyone could pull it off, they would be bragging about it loud and long.
Why are these people reinventing the wheel?
We plot phone traffic patterns as a function of geography on a daily basis so we can make sure we have capacity where we need it. Hell, I could go to a plotter 25 yards from my desk and plot out a map very similar to the one in the article.
Honestly, sometimes I chuckle at what academics think is cutting edge. Years ago a friend of mine from school was discussing "new" compensation algorithms for telescopes which were in fact over 20 years old to the people who've been working in satellite recon.
Another aspect: cell phone companies design their systems based on call density & concentration - this could have been real news a decade ago. It's standard practice now. I can draw the cell phone usage in a city if you answer a few questions: where are the rush hour routes? where is the business district? what are the peak rush hour times? You can get a much better picture by actually analyzing a lot of data but the fundamental result will be the same!
"Physics is to math what sex is to masturbation." - Richard Feynman
As someone who lives in Graz, this map is very interesting.
The large red peak is, not surprisingly, the Technical University in Town.
The smaller peaks in the centre of the map seem to be the Hauptplatz, the schlossberg, and the new art museum - so people phoning to meet friends etc. This area is also the old town of Graz, and is thick with bars, clubs, and resturants.
The peaks to the top left are residental areas, but there is also a Technical college in this area as well, but this area is also rife for traffic jams, so it could be people phoning home to say they'll be late.
The area at the bottom left of the map is industrial.
Interestingly the area at the bottom of the map, to the left of the large peak, is the red light district, but doesn't have any mobile activity. I guess it was the wrong time of day!
I suspect the London bombs were triggered via cell phone.
Rubbish. How could they? You can't get a mobile signal on the underground because it's so far underground. The bombs were on timers - at least, they were until the police decided to change the story for reasons known only unto them.
Many underground transit tunnels - and car/truck tunnels - have repeaters nowadays to provide cell phone, emergency signal, and radio services. However, this is not true of all tunnels, only some.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --