Traffic cameras are great and I check them all the time before I leave work. One of the most useful sites for me is http://www.wtop.com/?sid=604381&nid=370 which provides links to all of the available traffic cameras enabling me to view real time information about current road conditions within the camera's range. My other favorite site, http://www.traffic.com/Baltimore-Traffic/Baltimore-Traffic-Reports.html?AWOPARTNER=WBAL-RADIO/, gives me traffic condition summaries. The Google maps site (http://maps.google.com/) with the traffic overlay enabled is also useful too. However, the information that is provided by these sites is limited by the number of available and statically located cameras and collectors.
Turning the driver into a min-camera (Croudsourcing)
Wouldn't it be great if the actual drivers who are stuck in poor traffic conditions could easily and continuously report the current road conditions and share this information with others? By extension, road speeds and road hazards overlaid with weather information could help improve traffic efficiency in the areas of route optimization, fuel reduction, traffic light timing, merging control, and even crash prevention. Each driver could be viewed as a participant within an overall Croudsourcing collection model that could greatly enhance all user's driving experiences. Traffic sites could be upgraded to publish the user generated and valued added information instead of solely re-publishing traffic camera feeds and speed camera outputs.
VII to Save the Day (Web 2.0)?
An emerging technology that has a potential of success within the Web 2.0 framework that could realize the traffic condition croudsouring request is the concept of Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII). The general idea of VII, described in more detail here (http://www.vehicle-infrastructure.org/vii-overview/ ) is that it provides the capability to collect and to combine real-time traffic information transmitted wirelessly by individual vehicles and road infrastructure devices and then to share this value added information back to the community. The real-time information can be sent to vehicles, road signs, hand held devices (GPS, BlackBerries, etc.), RSS feeds, e-mail, and websites. A nice visual of VII could be something along the lines of the following picture:
(C2C-CC Manifesto , Version 1.1, 28th August, 2007)
Clearly, since each VII enabled car becomes its own traffic information sender and receiver the quantity and accuracy of traffic information is far greater than what static and sporadically placed traffic cameras can provide.
The same link (http://www.vehicle-infrastructure.org/vii-overview/ ) provides a video demonstration of VII.
VII ≈ AJAX?
VII can be loosely compared to the AJAX framework, in that VII collects and repackages existing bits of information and deliveries value added information back to the user.
Pie-in-the-sky or Reality?
In order to achieve VII agreements must be made between Federal and State Department of Transportation, car manufacturers, automotive associations, and drivers. However, to date, VII has not been fully implemented or even funded and there is a public call for viable business models (https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=711fab1bc7baf695b5bdd85be433d42d&_cview=0) to realize VII.
More Information
For more information about VII and its derivations (including security {http://www.network-on-wheels.de/downloads/NOW_TechReport_Attacks_on_Inter_Vehicle_Communications.pdf}) can be found via Google Search "Inter Vehicle Communication".
No comments:
Post a Comment