A two-week trial currently taking place in Florida evaluates
a new way to map traffic patterns in
real time by processing “non-voice data streams generated
by cellphones.” Organizations involved in the test include the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, DOT,
FedEx, UPS, and various cellular carriers. Snip:
Every cellphone is tuned into multiple relay towers. The towers determine the phone’s position twice a second when someone is talking and once every 30 seconds if the phone is idle. The towers send phone position information to the carrier’s local computers where, for the most part, [engineer Ron Herman] says, “it falls on the floor and nobody pays any attention to it.”
Atlanta-based IntelliOne probes that data stream and converts it into real-time traffic congestion reports. The reports detail the exact locations and extent of the congestion, and the average speed of traffic.
“If there are 50 or 100 phones out on I-275 moving at 10 miles an hour in a 65 mph zone, there’s a problem,” Herman said.
There are no privacy issues. The IntelliOne probe taps a data stream, not the voice stream, so it can’t listen in on calls. There also is an anonymity filter, so the system doesn’t know whose phone it is tracking.
“There are no privacy issues.” Heh. Link (Thanks, Rusty Hodge / via FriendsOfWayne)
Reader comment: Michael Keukert in Aachen, Germany writes:
the previous issue of the German edition of MIT’s “Technology Review”
reports that such tests are being conducted in several areas of Germany
for quite a while already.
Germanys crowded network auf “Autobahn” is heavily affected by traffic
jams, so a network of permanently mounted detectors have been installed.
Data is also acquired by “floating car units”, many of them put on the
road by BMW. The research project tries to use the cellphone data to
further detail the current traffic situation and to have an early
warning for jams.