Sharing to Tackle The Traffic

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

Nokias Leaked Future Device Line Up?

Over at Engadget Mobile,an anonymous tipster has found a leaked list of Nokia prototypes developed and to be developed.Where this seems to be a list of prototype devices available to groups within Nokia or third-party development partners.Anyhow gotta keep in mind that it still falls into the category of Rumor and non of this future devices are officially announced by Nokia,but the list is fairly  justifiable as the features are somewhat closely aligned with some devices that we had in our mind.Like the E90 successor,could probably be something similar to the Eitri,and there is this the 8mp corolla which would possibly be the N93 successor?

One thing is clear when looking at this chart,that is as a company they’ve successfully achieved and completed most of their proposed work,so in the future too,they will.Just keep your fingers crossed.

Most the future devices will run on s60 touch OS,but still there are few 3rd edition ones too,love to see them manufacturing more of them so ultimately the 3rd edition would become the most improved OS version ever developed.Also I’m very skeptical on the cancelled device with the codename Hammer.

Product Code	Codename	OS	Prototype availability	Notes	Status
RM-320	Aino	3.1	2007 wk 22	N95 8GB	Development complete
RM-187	Ariane	3.2	2007 wk 28	5710 XpressMusic	Development complete
RM-235	Merlin	3.2	2007 wk 37	N78	Development complete
RM-462	Piranha	3.2.1	2007 wk 39	AT&T version of E71. Software based on 6650	Development complete
RM-261	Hammer	3.2.2	2007 wk 40	?	Cancelled
RM-313	Sharaku	3.1	2007 wk 42	N82	Development complete
RM-333	Gadget	3.2.3	2007 wk 50	N85	Development complete
RM-247	Lumiere	3.2	2008 wk 0	N96	Development complete
RM-328	Astro	3.2	2008 wk 1	6220 classic	Development complete
RM-346	Leevi	3.1	2008 wk 11	E71-1	Development complete
RM-357	Leevi	3.1	2008 wk 11	E71-3	Development complete
RM-422	Wheldon	3.1	2008 wk 12	Vassini facelift (Ed.: We don’t know what Vassini is.)	Development complete
RM-367	Polaris	3.2	2008 wk 16	6210 Navigator	Development complete
RM-370	Surfer	3.2	2008 wk 17	Landscape, 2.6-inch QVGA, QWERTY, GPS, NaviWheel, 5MP camera, DVB-H, quadband GSM, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0	Development complete
RM-401	Roxy	3.2.1	2008 wk 17	Version of 6650 with half-QWERTY keyboard added. Includes Mail for Exchange. Quadband GSM, HSDPA	Canceled
RM-423	Bruce Lee	3.2.1	2008 wk 19	HSDPA, AGPS, 3.2MP camera	Development complete
RM-409	Celine	3.2	2008 wk 25	5320 XpressMusic	Development complete
RM-356	Tube	5.0	2008 wk 29	5800 XpressMusic	Development complete
RM-348	Vivien	3.2	2008 wk 37	N79	In development
?	Athlon	3.2	2008 wk 40	N85 refresh. Quadband GSM, HSDPA, 5MP camera with xenon flash, 8-16GB ROM, analog joystick, integrated compass, stereo speakers, GPS, WiFi	In development
RM-437	Sofie	3.1	2008 wk 44	E63. E71 downgrade, 2MP camera, no 3G	Development complete
RM-331	IP08	5.0	2008 wk 46	Widescreen touch, Naviscroll, QWERTY, AGPS, FM radio and transmitter, 5MP AF camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, TV-out	In development
RM-431	Shakira	3.2	2008 wk 46	Candybar, WiFi	In development
RM-469	Stella	3.2.3	2008 wk 48	Candybar — successor to E51. AGPS with integrated compass, 3MP camera with LED flash, WiFi	In development
RM-482	Terra	3.2.3	2008 wk 48	Version of Stella with hybrid QWERTY keypad	In development
RM-424	Gwen	3.2	2008 wk 51	Candybar, AGPS, 5MP AF camera with LED flash	In development
?	Ivalo	5.0	2008 wk 52	Follow-on to IP08. 3.5-inch wide touchscreen, 32GB ROM, AGPS, FM transmitter and receiver, 5MP camera, WiFi, TV-out, Bluetooth	In development
?	Mobile Office 09	3.2	2008 wk 52	?	In development
RM-412	Victoria	3.2.3	2009 wk 6	?	In development
RM-343	Dawn	3.1	2008 wk 9	E66	Development complete
?	Corolla	5.0.1	2009 wk 11	3.0-inch VGA display, non-touch, 8MP camera, half QWERTY keyboard, 128MB RAM, 8GB ROM, WiFI, UPnP, HSPA, AGPS, FM transmitter	In development
P3838	Madeleine	3.2.3	2009 wk 13	Side-sliding QWERTY, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, VoIP, GPS, 3.2MP camera, N-Gage support with gaming keys	In development
?	Vector	3.2.3	2009 wk 14	?	In development
?	Jig	3.2	2009 wk 17	Landscape slider for AT&T using 6650’s guts. Quadband GSM, HSDPA, 2MP camera, 2.4-inch display	In development
RM-453	Eitri	5.0.1	2009 wk 17	Landscape candybar with QWERTY, 3.5-inch 640×350 display, minimum 8GB ROM, microSD, pressure sensitive touch UI with tactile feedback and gestures, charging via USB, 5MP AF camera with dual LED flash, integrated compass and accelerometer, proximity sensor, FM transmitter	In development

Africa Music Project : Lets Make Them Smile

In Africa,Nairobi,Kenya Nokia research is conducting some experimental social media research in order to develop affordable and sustainable communication concepts for average African society where Poverty has taken over all their life.But Music and Rythm have no cultural or economical barriers, where it plays the role of universal language to communicate with different opinions and cultures. So glad to see a Growing Mobile Phone company like Nokia is involved in such a field to make the distance between them and the rest of the world more shorter and narrower,so one day the music of that courageous slum Youth “Samuel Juma” and his friends will be spread on a Nokia device,May be as the next default ringtone? A small change will make a huge difference .So enjoy this video in you weekend and try to understand and link your thoughts on the fact that how long will it take to make a “better and Equally served World?” and our role in this move?Lets make them smile,lets help them connected,by doing so there will be more options for them to face their challenges.Life aint that hard when there’s plenty to share!!!!!!!!!not resources but thoughts……….

Gesture Input For Mobile Devices : Are We There Yet?

Gestures are one of the most used Non-verbal communication system,other than the facial expressions,which are far less intentional,but comes naturally out of our faces.In this manner gestures are more easy to understand and readable at a glance as they are purposely generated as a main stream of communication since the time humans started to live in social groups.Not only among humans the gesture communication is present in many animal societies too.As we can understand and distinguish between different kinds of gestures just by observing them,is it possible for a electronic device to read the same as we do?Answer is Yes!

Like our eyes,the Camera on an Electronic device(In this specific case a camera on a mobile phone) acts as a input slot for these physical signals and then turn them into digital ones where a processor will decode it and recognize the meaning of it. Yet yield results are not on par with the biological human eye,but rather interesting to see how close they will get by the time.

Still these concepts may look just futuristic but we’ve already seen few amazing experimental work published,some may not directly link to this topic as it is,but others we can call them as previews of early steps of evolution.One such thing is the NinjaStrike game,in which the backside camera sensor detects the movement of hand across its visual path and then quickly translate that action into a digital signal.

Camera-based motion data is problematic to use for gesture recognition due to the low quality of the data, caused by a low sample rate combined with high noise.So as a solution most gesture detection systems use a gesture recognition algorithm that tries to solve this problem by using state machines, modeled from a gesture rule set, that parse the motion data and interpret the gesture the user has performed. Which is the core technology behind what Samsung has patented some time back.In this a particular gesture is identified by comparing it with a one stored in its gesture rule.So misinterpretations should be expected.Interference with surrounding environmental disturbances on the gesture input is much low than  it’s for Voice input system but still the factors like light levels and other visuals barriers may stand in the way of this gesture readings.

Camera-based motion estimation was first proposed as positioning input for mobile phones by Rohs. And since then there are several Gesture input recognition algorithms developed and available but still non-of them made their way on to a public retail device,as a fully gesture controlled one.But in the recent past we saw some interesting and promising demonstrations involving touch less gestures where no contact with the device  screen is done during the input.

Samir’s Hand Wave is one such innovative application which users the front camera sensor to detect input,

or using a smile to trigger a camera shutter

So all these things are indicating the gradual approach to a new level of input system that we will soon experience on our devices.Yet we are not there,but in close vicinity.

Nokia Point and Find

Another Nokia concept that gives you a glimpse of the future is ready to come out from the Oven,The Nokia Point and Find website is awaiting to be launched soon.Another good hint for their rapid move to bring new innovations to the Mobile life style as I discussed in my previous post.

Nokia Point&Find is an easy way to find information on the internet: people can simply point their camera phone on their surroundings to access relevant information. Nokia Point&Find is revolutionizing the way people utilize their phones and the internet.You will soon experience it when the official site is launched.

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