Tracking Cell Phones for Real-Time Traffic Data 125
stillgoogling writes to tell us the Associated Press is reporting that the Missouri Department of Transportation is stepping up a project to track the mass movements of cellular phones. This project is designed to use the movements of cell phones to map real-time traffic conditions statewide on more than 5,500 miles of road. From the article: "Officials say there's no Big Brother agenda in the Missouri project -- the data will remain anonymous, leaving no possibility to track specific people from their driveway to their destination."
Done by the french ... (Score:4, Informative)
I can't find any direct link to the paper, altough somebody with an IEEE account could probably find some. It is also cited on University of Virginia Center for Transportation studies [virginia.edu].
If somebody can link to more info
As if by magic (Score:3, Informative)
A link to the article? (Score:5, Informative)
When an editor decides to rewrite the copy, it helps to make sure the meat is still there -- in this case, the actual link to the article.
So that other people don't have to waste time like I did, here are a few assorted articles on the topic (some are marked as specifically from the AP):
Here (Score:4, Informative)
Patented Long Ago (Score:3, Informative)
Concept and reality are miles apart (Score:2, Informative)
Motorola did a lot of work with UK company Trafficmaster on their Smartnav [smartnav.com] product, where most of the traffic data comes in realtime from roadside cameras and sensors on Motorway bridges covering 9,000 miles of UK roads. When you push the button on the unit, the mobile phone rings into a call centre with the current GPS position encoded in the Caller ID of the phone call (3 bytes), you tell them the destination, and they send the turn-by-turn instructions back into the unit. If a jam shows up on your route before you get to your destination, the central servers ring the units and offer (with an estimate of the delay if you do nothing), then download, a route around the jam (if indeed one is available). Works really well.
Getting a GPS signal communicated back and forth in real time is the only way this hack will work - at least until the cell sizes get to 3G pico sizes.
There have been experiments with floating vehicle sensors, but most companies that say they use these for real time data collection do so as a PR stunt - the number of vehicles that need to be equipped and the economics of getting the data back in real time don't make business sense today, from either an accuracy or cost standpoint. Most instead download history at the end of the day, and just pick up details of roadworks and accidents from "journalistic" sources - whether there's a jam present or not.
Until we get GPS in most handsets (and if operators allow the caller IDs to be sent through with GPS data on board, but the call terminated at either end without any money changing hands), the use of mobile phones for spotting jams, or indeed navigating around them, will be very limited.
Ian W.
Re:Text with FNORD-o-VISION (Score:5, Informative)
Acting on a tip from a Wal*Mart photo clerk, the Secret Service visited a high school and confiscated a posted depicting a student giving a "thumbs down" gesture to a photo of Bush. The last time I checked the confiscation of personal property required due process and expressing dissatisfaction of either government in general or even specific officials was explicitly allowed. I'd say this counts as a fairly obvious abuse of authority.
Other sterling examples of abuse of power on the part of the secret service include:
The arrest of husband and wife Nicole and Jeff Rank for wearing T-Shirts that read "love America, hate Bush" (who were otherwise not disruptive)
The official policy of the Secret Service (since rescinded) of segregating and concealing protesters at public appearances
Janet Voorhies and two companions were denied entry to a Bush event on the grounds that they were wearing T-Shirts that read "Protect Our Civil Liberties"
Perry Patterson was arrested for simply saying "no" when Cheney declared that Bush has made our world safer
No history of any abuse of power? According to official accounts the secret service has a 0% rate of abuses of power within their ranks. This is simply impossible: no agency can make the correct hiring calls 100% of the time and any claims to the contrary displays an abuse of power by covering up mistakes - at the expense of those who were violated.
Having a perfect track record is impossible: having a very public record of swiftly correcting any problems isn't.
Re:They are not so honest about their intentions (Score:3, Informative)
This approach was used to find OJ Simpson's White Bronco ten years ago, so it's nothing new.