Tracking Your Cell Phone for Traffic Reports 129
BostonBTS writes "IntelliOne Technologies has just launched a real-world test of Need4Speed, a real-time traffic-monitoring system that tracks drivers' cell phones. From their website: 'Unlike any other solution available today, the IntelliOne Roadway Speed Measurement System produces live roadway speeds for all highways and surface streets where mobile phone coverage exists, accurate to within three miles per hour.'
Of course, any compulsory phone-tracking system raises privacy concerns. According to an article on LiveScience, 'the personal identification data of users will be stripped from cell phone signals before they are processed by IntelliOne's software.' The cell phone companies have this data, but IntelliOne says they won't be keeping their copy."
Now all they need (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Wanna build something similar with open source? (Score:2, Interesting)
There's an interesting project called Place Lab [placelab.org] that is building a database of, among other things, cell tower ID to physical location mappings. Their goal is to allow you to "[provide] low-cost, easy-to-use device positioning for location-enhanced computing applications."
Now, they don't have all the data that these guys have, since they just sample the tower that your phone currently happens to be talking to, so you may not be able to get accurate short-term speed readings, but I bet a lot of you could think of fun things to do with it!
Disclaimer: I'm not in any way associated with Place Lab, but I'm considering using it for some LBS experiments and would love to see as many people contributing to their database as possible. :)
Re:Now all they need (Score:3, Interesting)
If they were going to re-route people they could send a couple of SMSs (or the entire message if you have a decent cell phone that merges "large" SMSs into one) with the text directions of where they need to go.
That way it might be worth the privacy implications to some. For me? I'll stick to my autorouting handheld GPS.
Tickets for all (Score:2, Interesting)
Can you imagine if anytime you happen to go above the speedlimit in cell range you get a ticket? Everyone will be driving 5 miles under the speed limit all the time to "protect" themselves. I can also see this being used by insurance companies to increase rates on people who tend to speed.
On the plus side there might be some advantage to driving with the cell off with this technology. It might become the only way to get away with speeding. At least some people will get off the phone and pay attention while driving.
Re:Oh yeah, like it's going to be anonymous (Score:5, Interesting)
This is not GPS (Score:2, Interesting)
Is it possible for this system to be abused? Sure. Is it likely? Not really. The amount of data the company will be dealing with would make extended storage retarded. Most likely they'll be purging data as soon as the can convert it to summarized information for use in reporting and traffic trend spotting. A small amount of oversight would go a long way. Heck, they could even open source the code, in this case, the code is worthless with out the contracts with the cell providers, but at least the tech sector could take a look and feel more comfy knowing their driving habits are not being recorded.
The other huge boon to this is for the state. Imagine if you could see traffic trends by the minute covering trends over months. You could quickly identify dangerous traffic areas, distractions, traffic quirks, and all sorts of oddities that could be engineered around to reduce injuries, fatalities, and expenses.
-Rick
Re:Tickets for all (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Warning Calls (Score:3, Interesting)
It didn't work well.
First, I could only poll it every 15 minutes. Secondly, cells overlap. Thirdly, it just gives you a triangulation based on which towers you can see.
So basically, on a drive to London along the M4, I stuck at exactly 70mph for the test, and it showed me doing everything from 59 to about 84, with one sector at 97. It's not accurate enough. Until the 3G phones come along.
And you can see where I am (or rather where my work phone is (which is on the desk next to me)) now on my homepage [calum.org]....