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Cellphones to Monitor Highway Traffic
Roland Piquepaille writes "On February 8, 2008, about 100 UC Berkeley students will participate in the Mobile Century experiment, using GPS mobile phones as traffic sensors. During the whole day, these students carrying the GPS-equipped Nokia N95 will drive along a 10-mile stretch of I-880 between Hayward and Fremont, California. 'The phones will store the vehicles' speed and position information every 3 seconds. These measurements will be sent wirelessly to a server for real-time processing.' As more and more cellphones are GPS-equipped, the traffic engineering community, which currently monitors traffic using mostly fixed sensors such as cameras and loop detectors, is tempted to use our phones to get real-time information about traffic."
... already has it, the UK and Germany to follow.
Wish those other countries could also follow up with Coffee Shops.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
While well intentioned, I hope these testers remember that measuring a system changes the system.
Another idea I had years ago. My idea though was to pay people to run the software on their phones (just as Google pay people to have ads on their sites - paying per hour of data uploaded, or something similar), and then lease the aggregated data to interested parties. Companies interested in building/buying toll roads, government agencies to see if new roads need to be built, etc etc.
However, with SatNav getting more and more sophisticated, it was only going to be a matter of time before TomTom (or whoever) built a model where it uploaded your position back to them, enabling them to build up a realtime picture of traffic speeds, which they could then use to update drivers to avoid jams, etc.
Get your own free personal location tracker
Will it not be misused by finding the routine information of people?
hilarious
Will this gps information be warrantless?
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
The link leads to the GNAA final measure. Don't click, it even ruins Firefox on ubuntu.
this is my sig
On Fberuary 3, 2008, about 100.000 Slashdot readers will participate in the clickvertising experiment, using website increase to Ronad Piquepailles site. ...
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
"So Dad, what did you do while you were in college?"
"Well son, I helped testing this monitoring system that allows the government and some big companies to track your every move nowadays. But in my time, they only used it to do a traffic thingy."
We already have it too: Press release and Technology overview.
Deze sig is in 't Nederlands geschreven.
I never understood why GPS is considered such a good feature in a cell phone. On the contrary, it is possibly a bad thing, given the number of cases of wire tapping, cell phone eavesdropping (even when turned off). We already have enough privacy concerns given that triangulation can already tell a close-enough location of a cell phone user.
The more I see stories like this, the more I feel that a full-on Big Brother world could be oncoming. Sure, it could provide all kinds of data on the technicalities of GPS tracking via mobile phone triangulation or whatnot, but how much danger is there that these kinds of 'experiments' could be field tests for a greater invasion of privacy? RealID or even RFID, combined with this sort of GPS tracking could provide all the pieces needed to make our highway system a channelized control mechanism.
I should be more 'forward thinking' for my age I suppose. Does anyone else think that our privacy outweighs the convenience that realtime navigation and itinerary interactivity could potentially provide?
Last year TomTom announced their HD Traffic system http://www.tomtom.com/news/category.php?ID=4&NID=389&Language=4 that is using GSM handset location information from Vodafone to determine traffic conditions on dutch highways. Every 3 minute TomTom gets raw, anonymous handset location data from Vodafone. This data is then processed to determine where on the high ways large concentrations of mobile phones are moving slow. This might mean that there is a traffic jam at that location.
Each TomTom with HD traffic will also be equiped with a GSM sim and this enhanced traffic information is send via GPRS to these devices.
Some people are questioning the validity of their claims that this give better traffic details that current methodes. What is a car has broken down? will it trigger a traffic jam notification? How about paralell roads that are jammed? Or taxi's waiting at the trainstation for a pick up?
No country i know has got mass transit that allows you to ditch the car.
I live in Switzerland, and some people argue that it has one of the best mass transit systems in the world - if that is true, other country must REALLY be in a heap of shit, because it sucks bad here.
Mass Transit just isn't flexible enough to help most people. There are cases where it might be better than sitting on congested streets, but that doesn't make it good. If i expect congestion, i'll just take the motorcycle instead of the car - this has downsides of it's own, but it's still better than taking the train or bus.
Talking of cellphone triangulation, one could get a much higher sample size by just averaging the movement of the vast sea of mobile phones driving down the road. Almost 100% road coverage without needing shed loads of people to have a GPS enabled phone and the appropriate software.
In fact, Google says that Missouri is one step ahead of me:
http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/11/missouri-to-use-cellphone-signals-to-monitor-traffic/
Turn off the phone when you're driving.
..I would suggest bringing their battery charger along. 10miles with the GPS enabled is a little on the excessive side for the N95.
Science flies you to the moon; Religion flies you into buildings.
Is it just me.... or.... did I read the same article on /. a few months back?
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
The only difference between this and what is done regularly by transportation research groups is the fact that instead of using normal gps devices, they just happen to be cell phones as well this time... I personally covered a few drive shifts when some of the interns where I work couldn't make it.
I have a system like that already installed on my car. It's called gBook MX ( http://g-book.com/pc/default.asp ) In Japan, we already have a system called VICS ( http://www.vics.or.jp/english/index.html ) which monitors traffic on highways and some big/medium sized roads, using sensors placed over the road to track the speed of car flow, and then this information is gathered, processed and broadcasted to cars' navigation systems (by an FM radio signal, afaik) in a form of level of traffic on roads (which then used by navigation system to lay out the most optimal route) However, I think about a year ago, Toyota have created another system called gBook MX (there also was gBook alpha variation, but honestly I don't know much about it). gBook MX (in addition to allowing you to wirelessly access information which is not on a navi's hard drive), also supports centralized traffic monitoring system similar to the one in TFA. Basically, your navigation system is connected to the W-CDMA network (provided by Japanese mobile operator AU), and sends position of the car while it's on the move, to the data center, every 5 or 10 seconds. This information is processed and broadcasted you back in the similar way as VICS above. Navigation systems which support gBook MX come in two flavors - ones with built-in transmission module (so you basically have a mobile phone-like transmitter built into your car), and the ones which allow you to pair your mobile with the navigation using Bluetooth (that's the type I have). So I just basically enter my car, start the engine, the navigation system automatically connects to my phone, and I become a GPS broadcaster of a sort (my coordinates are broadcasted to data center every 10 seconds - and it would be every 5 seconds if I had a buillt-in broadcasting module). The traffic for this broadcast is pretty low so I don't really care if my monthly bill goes up by 100-200 yen/month (after all, it's so cool to be a part of this new system ;)
What's good about gBook MX is that it allows traffic monitoring for smaller roads, where there are no VICS sensors installed. Toyota said that it needs at least 100,000 cars equipped with gBook MX-compatible modules in order to get adequate coverage of the country. I don't know how many cars have this system on-board yet, though. But once the system is in place (it's already in place, but I think the number of "compatible" cars is still lacking somehow), this will be another way to escape traffic jams..
Slow from 6-9:30 and 4:30-7:00, mostly northbound in the morning, mostly southbound in the evening. When do I get my grant money?
As someone living in Berlin/Germany, I must say it's perfectly possible to get by without a car, at least in the places I have lived so far (towns >= 40,000). A car might be required in more rural areas or if your job requires it. And yes, sometimes a car would be more convenient, but it's a lot cheaper to just rent one for those occasions.
Fleur de Sel
Somebody will come up with a "friendly" name, such as Living Vigilance .
1. Cell Phone transmits location, receives location-based advertisements.
2. Smile & Wave at Security Camera.
3. REAL ID\driver's license (still in pocket) scanned at shop entrance.
4. Smile & Wave at Security Camera.
5. Credit card scanned at purchase. Purchases registered and recorded.
6. Smile & Wave at Security Camera.
The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know.[Harry Truman]
and ditched my car 7 years ago. I live in Boston across the street from a subway stop. There's another one a few hundred yards away, a third line 1 mile away and a fourth 1.3 miles away. I ride my bicycle year round for many trips 5 miles or less, and arrive faster than the subway or a car. Walking a mile is also no big deal, and I occasionally car pool if a neighbor and I are both headed to a meeting or event.
What about groceries? Smaller trips or deliveries. What about big purchases? If I ever needed one, I'd borrow a friend's car or sign on to zipcar. What about weekends in NYC? I take Acela or the bus. What about weekends in rural Vermont? I rent a car for $40 a day. The combined total of non-air travel for my wife and I: $2500/yr, and that includes a combined total of 5 months of time out of Boston. Can your car ownership costs -- insurance, gas, tires, lubes, car payment/depreciation, parking, tickets, tolls, taxes, and repairs match that?
Yeah, you can ditch your car. Doesn't mean you'll never have to borrow or rent one, but it does mean you'll likely save money, operate an auto for fewer miles per year, get a bit more exercise, have a chance to read a magazine or book while using transportation once in a while, and contribute to a higher quality of life for yourself and your community. Don't let the perfect [a completely car-free society] get in the way of the good [a society where the average miles driven per driver is under 5,000, or even less].
Support a few technologists in Washington.
We are already doing this in the US as well. Guess the college students missed looking that up, but hey, college students often prove things that have already been proven. The data they collect is really stripped down.
It doesn't make sense to use phones or triangulation to track cars. Keep in mind that driving is a highly regulated privilege, not a right. Within a few years you can be pretty sure that a GPS will be required in every motor vehicle (looking at you, sport bike riders). Have fun getting out of those speeding tickets, claiming you stopped at the stop sign, weren't weaving all over the road, weren't at the bank when it was robbed, etc. It's going to happen.
I am constantly forgetting my cell phone at home or at work. Will I then get to a red light and be stuck because the GPS says I'm not there?
Vital papers will demonstrate their vitality by moving to where you can't find them.
The bigbrother tag amuses me, because it seems to imply that this cell phone GPS thing could be used against your will to track you or something. Well I've got a N95 and I have no fear of that happening, because for the GPS to synchronise you need to slide your cell phone out and wait about one minute and a half in a clear outdoors location. So clearly using a N95 you can be sure that the GPS will only be used if you want it to be used.
You just got troll'd!
I guess it depends on lot on the people you know, where you want to hang out, and what kind of work you do.
During the day, i usually visit customers all over the map. Driving from customer to customer with a car or motorcycle is simple, convenient and fast. I can take whatever equipment with me that i need (more so in the car, less so on the motorcycle). I don't have to worry where a customer is located, when the trains are going or whatever. After i'm done, i just get into my car and drive to the next location. With mass transit, i'd be in a whole lot trouble. Several customers are in industry locations where you get maybe a single bus per half hour, and then have to wait an hour for a train. For me, that is simply not acceptable.
For my groceries and everything, i do these by foot, with the exception of buying water/drinks, which i do once a month. I could have these delivered, but it doesn't matter that much.
After my job, there's a lot of variety. I go directly to the nearest City here, taking Mass Transit is an option IF i'm sure to come back before 2300 (otherwise, the busses in my hometown don't drive anymore, and i'll have to pay for a cab). It get's even worse if you visit other people - because in other smaller towns, busses also stop driving at 2300, so you'd have to leave at 2100 or so to get home.
The biggest downside of using the car/motorcycle in my free time is that i can't drink alcohol. Otherwise, there are just advantages.
I don't know much about Berlin, i was only there once. Can you reach the outskirts of town 24/7? How long do you have to wait to catch the next train/bus/tube?
It'd be interesting to provide a facility in phones to help make this less prone to privacy issues & semi-legal use by law enforcement. For example, allowing stations to poll passing phones for position and "instantaneous" speed (calculated internally by the phone using, say, the last 3 GPS position checks). Something like that would permit phone responses to omit any unique identifier since there would not be as much of a need to connect multiple responses from a single unit.
An alternative would be to generate a short-lived random ID on the first request by a base station and have it expire after, say, 2 minutes, with no record of it being retained in the phone.
Personally, I'd actually like it if things like phone and vehicle GPS could be used to enforce road safety rules... if I could trust the police to use it only for what they're legally allowed to use it for, rather than for random fishing expeditions and illegal surveillance. Since that'll NEVER happen, I guess the only option is strong anonymity for this sort of data collection.
This isn't new by any stretch of the imagination.
In 1994 (that's pushing two decades ago) I worked on a pilot project with Bell Atlantic Mobile (now Verizon), FHWA, Virginia DOT and the Maryland DOT that tracked mobile phones along the Washington, DC Beltway. The phones didn't have to cooperate, and it was also discovered that call rates went through the roof just as backups started to form. A bunch of the technology we developed ended up in some of the early E911 systems.
Anyone who has lived in an earthquake zone knows that even a ten second warning of an impending earthquake could save many lives. Dive under a desk, stand in a door frame, get out of an elevator, stop your car, etc.
I wonder if cell phones equipped with GPS and an accelerometer could provide such a warning? Even if only twenty per cent of the accelerometers registered abnormal acceleration, a real time analysis of the data would show the distinctive expanding wave front that could only be caused by a major earthquake. People could then be alerted by cell phone or radio.
Just another reason why not having a mobile telephone is better.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
How is it a story that a bunch of students are going to try to do this, when there are already commercial services providing the same information? Heck, /. even covered this back in 2005!
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/143247
And that was something like the 4th time the story had been posted.
there's also:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/30723/113/
and these guys have been around for ages.
http://www.zipdash.com/
You know what? If they were running a free service that everyone could register with, and it integrated with google maps, then it would be a story.
Oh wait, ZipDash was bought by Google back in 2004...
The news here? That they're paying US$250 for the days work.
An emotive issue this one, everybody loves to go fast, right?
/., right?) you're more likely to be speeding, dead, in hospital, throwing yourself on the mercy of the court, etc. Simple laws are the only ones that work, so thanks to young men, we all have to drive slower.
Speed limits are not just to protect drivers from themselves. Vehicle speeds are also an environmental problem - not a 'oh noes think of teh poor treees' one, but a human environment problem. Faster vehicles = more noise outside and inside. Faster vehicles = higher concentrations of exhaust fumes and brake dust. Faster vehicles = less time to cross the road. Faster vehicles = "don't play outside" instead of "watch out for cars". Faster vehicles = "Get a fireman with a shovel and a hose" instead of "A fireman will cut you out soon". For every km/h increase in speed (furlongs per candle-inch, whatever) a thousand people's lives are made very slightly worse.
Some people are safer at higher speeds. I'm sure there are statistics from insurers that will back this up. If I dimly recall articles I've read, if you're a young man (and you are reading
Someone (maybe GP?) said "you're probably breaking the law by 1-5mph". That's the nail's head right there. It's not rocket science - look at your speedo from time to time. How accurately can you control your vehicle's speed? Subtract the maximum error from the speed limit for the stretch of road you're on and you can satisfy yourself you're not breaking the law. Aim for the limit, and you are committing a pre-meditated crime. You'll be the slowest vehicle you can see (except for in your rear view mirror) but you'll be the only one not looking for blue lights or speed traps. Try it - you might even grow to like it.
I was young once, and got speeding fines. Now I'd like to go a little faster, but stay within the law. But I can't - young men FTW!
Git off my road!
I currently live in Zurich. I've lived in many other cities, visited some more, and Zurich has by far the best public transportation I've seen anywhere. Personally, I don't like having to search for parking spaces downtown or in the closer suburbs--these are the places where public transport has an edge and is more flexible, in my opinion. A car is useful sometimes. I just rent it then, and this occasional cost is still much less than the cost of owning a car.
And how will this system tell if there road is blocked stopping traffic, or if the road is empty and everyone with cellphones are sitting at the cafe or pub?
You can basically get anywhere 24/7, but it will take longer after 23 on weekdays/2am on weekend. During the day, busses, subway and tram come every 5 min.
Fleur de Sel