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Project Turns GPS Phones Into Traffic Reporters

Posted by timothy on from the then-it's-mandatory dept.

narramissic writes "Starting on Monday, researchers from Nokia and UC Berkeley will kick off the Mobile Millennium project. The researchers hope that thousands of volunteers will download a free Java program that figures out by their movement and location when they are driving, and then transmits that information to the project's servers, which then crunch it into a Bay Area traffic map. 'The whole concept here is that if everyone shares just a little bit of what they're seeing ... then everyone can benefit by seeing the conditions ahead of them,' said Quinn Jacobson, a research leader with Nokia in Palo Alto."

5 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Know what happened with Dash? by Lord+Satri · · Score: 3, Informative

    I of course wish them good luck. One of the last commercial attempts to do this, Dash Express, recently revealed it did no go as well as originally planned.

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    Animoog.org
  2. TomTom did it! by wfberg · · Score: 4, Informative

    TomTom takes anonymized location information from mobile phone handsets in The Netherlands, and make traffic reports they call HD traffic.

    The handsets are not (necessarily) equipped with GPS chips, but their location is triangulated by the GSM network itself. The mobile network (Vodafone NL) supplies the information to TomTom, who then process it into traffic reports.

    They claim to cover 10 times more roadarea than conventional traffic detection that uses inductive loops embedded in the roads. (The conventional system is already quite extensive in The Netherlands, which is a small and densely populated country). I seem to recall TomTom also have some sort of patent.

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    1. Re:TomTom did it! by kitgerrits · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, you can see the current HD Traffic status on their website for free.
      The reason you need to pay for HD traffic on your tomtom is because it includes a 24x7 GPRS connection.
      Mobile Data packages in NL tend to cost around â10 a month and so does HD traffic, surprise!
      The added advantage of HD Traffic is that it uses a modem built into your Tomtom, so you are free to use your mobile phone for other things.
      (unlike earlier versions of Tomtom Traffic).

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      "I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. It's the one thing I am indebted to her for."
  3. Tom Tom HD by zoefff · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's already commercially available here in the Netherlands. Tomtom teamed up with vodaphone, which can locate their mobile phones location and speed (not necessarily GPS needed) . This is fed to tomtom, which displays it on your navigation system. More info here

  4. Re:The privacy post by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 2, Informative

    Newsflash: your phone ALREADY tracks you; it's an inherent part of cell phone technology. What matters is how this tracking data is used.