Nokia turns people into traffic sensors

UNION CITY, Calif.--On a cool, overcast morning in the parking lot of a Lowe's hardware store, 100 UC Berkeley students lined up in rows ready to jump into a bevy of idling vehicles.

With media and VIPs from companies like Nokia, Navteq, General Motors, BMW, and CalTrans looking on, wave after wave of students left the parking lot to drive a 10-mile stretch of the nearby 880 freeway as part of a large-scale experiment to test how cell phones can monitor and predict traffic.

The test, conducted all day Friday, was put on by the California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT) as a joint project between Nokia, CalTrans, and Berkeley's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Video: Using
cell phones
to track traffic

Each student car was issued a Nokia N95 phone with GPS and special traffic-monitoring software developed by Nokia's Palo Alto, Calif.-based research lab--plus a Bluetooth headset. As the students drove the freeway, the phone sent data about each car's speed and position back to the company's research facility. The data is compiled and used to predict traffic patterns and help drivers get where they need to be quickly. Nokia hopes that one day the system could be a significantly cheaper way to track traffic than the permanent sensors installed in roadways or next to them because it uses equipment most people already own: cell phones.

Alex Bayen, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and lead researcher on the project for Berkeley, called the experiment "a glimpse into the future of traffic information collecting and data processing."

An obvious concern is privacy, and one that Bayen was quick to address. The information sent from each phone is designed to keep each "moving traffic sensor" anonymous. When the information is sent to Nokia, Bayen says all of the personal identifying information is stripped from the data, and encryption methods on the level of what banks use is employed to keep information private. Also, the traffic monitoring software only broadcasts information when it senses the phone has entered a specific area, like a highway. It does not track the phones that are on cul-de-sacs, for example.

The data from the phones will be sent back to the Nokia Research Center where a team will analyze the usability of the data and determine what comes next.

Nokia Chief Technology Officer Bob Iannucci, who was on hand for the field test, said this particular project is moving at a more aggressive pace than most of Nokia's research because of the potential impact of the experiment. The phone maker hopes to expand the experiment from 100 to possibly 1,000 people soon. And instead of participating in a one-day test, users would be invited to use the traffic monitoring software in the course of their daily routines.

To see CNET News.com's video of the experiment, click here.

[vhmp01]

Privacy & cell phones?

If you really wanted just to monitor traffic, put the GPS sensors to the cars themselves, not to the ?personal? cell phones. Seems just like an excuse to monitor people?s behavior and habits really.

[My-Self]

The idea ...

The idea is to use the already collected (anonymized) location data to detect slowdowns and traffic jams in realtime.

TomTom navigation GPS use that data to either adjust projected arrival time or suggest alternate route depending on realtime data.

Yet, the privacy issue remains, as cell operators keep the geolocation data.

[bobcode]

exactly

but stepping out side and looking at all the cars is just too simple for government.

[JimHillTx]

Location

As for using gps in cars, not all do and would still require a cell phone to report back to the data center. Worried about someone knowing where you are, don't use or turn on your cell phone as they are updated as you move from area to area. even sitting still, your location can be traced. that's how the gov go a couple of convitions, their cell phones showed where they had gone.

[SixFiveO]

Old News

This has already been done in the Netherlands by Vodafone and TomTom and is sucessfully being used today.

[aureolin]

Invasion!

... And you thought having to show a picture ID to travel (RealID) was an invasion of privacy?? Now, you can be tracked 24x7.

"No Sir, you don't need to present your papers. We already know who you are and where you've been."

:-P

[GoogleFreak]

What about passengers?

If four people are in the car and all have cell phones, would the freeway look more congested than it really is?

What if I don't have a Nokia phone?

How is this any better than the current system? It was mentioned that it was cheaper, but the current system doesn't have the same privacy issues or the above issues that I mention.

I'm all for progress, but how does this benefit anyone but Nokia?

[Joe street]

Ziplane Inc. has done this stuff already

You may check out www.ziplane.com

[nwetterling]

If you want privacy

get off the phone, the net, your home, If someone wants to track you they can, give it up.

[DoctorCox]

Wiki Style Traffic Alerts

I have a better idea ... a public mobile map program used the motoring community where everybody collaborates by posting short voice clips at their gps location. Maybe its an accident report, maybe a radar sighting, maybe a disabled vehicle blocking traffic ... etc. The clip icons go away after 3 minutes.
Advertisers could post ad clips on a pay per click basis. I get the money.