Nokia research centre’s Upcoming innovation site demonstrates a GPS-solution for a growing problem around the world.Traffic is a matter that makes every commuter worry,it’s a time wasting riddle that transportation expertise are tackling for years.Nokia is trying to serve the share what the technology and global human network can do to handle this problem.

The concept is to install a special GPS assisted application to the commuters mobiles and the collect the mealtime data send by them to analyze the situation out there.So unlike the traffic sensors placed on the street in this case the sensing device is actively moving while collecting and sending the data to a main network.Actually these are the true benefits of the Global human network that Nokia and other Mobile manufacturers are trying accomplish.This is where sharing serves us and others productively at once.

So in the future your trusty Nokia will guide you to avoid unwanted traffic jams and save your precious time,as University California and California transportation authority “CalTrans” are working together to make it happen.

How will this work?

By collecting real-time traffic flow data from your and hundreds of other GPS-enabled mobiles as people commute in their cars. Your device will share anonomously its location and the speed its travelling at via the Internet. All the data will then be aggregated and a traffic map is generated. This map of the traffic flow will be available for your mobile to use.

Your mobile, with a bit of added intelligence, will be able to combine this traffic data with your commuting patterns, calendar, and current position offering contextually relevant personal assistance.

Today, real-time traffic information is captured by deploying sensor networks along road sides. This system is limited, as it cannot cover every road for reasons of cost. By utilizing GPS enabled mobile phones the data is more accurate compared to the data collected by sensor networks. The GPS system is also much cheaper as the sensor networks are expensive to deploy and maintain.

Trials underway

In February 2008, an all-day field experiment was run to test this developing technology in real-time conditions. It used 100 cars with drivers on a 10 mile stretch of Californian highway. Each of the 100 cars was equipped with a Nokia N95 mobile with an application which sent location and travel speed data provided by the Nokia N95’s integrated GPS. GPS can pinpoint a car’s location with an accuracy of a few meters and calculate traveling speed to within 3 miles per hour.

Using this data to estimate prevailing speeds and travel times, researchers were able to obtain a picture of real-time traffic conditions. Information was displayed on the Internet, allowing viewers to visualize traffic in real time. Read more about the 100 Cars trial and other Nokia research projects.

Things to try

Nokia Maps puts maps and navigation in your hand today. With free maps for more than 200 countries, and with 15 million points of interest pre-loaded, you can plan your route street by street or city to city. Download for free

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 29th, 2008 at 1:49 am and is filed under Upcoming Innovations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.