They city of Calgary, Alberta has recently installed a $400,000 traffic monitoring system on a stretch of highway known as the Deerfoot Trail. And to track the movement and progress of vehicles it monitors the Bluetooth signals coming from mobile phones, headsets, or built-in entertainment systems. More »
When we last checked in on one of Sandvine’s traffic studies, Netflix had just edged past BitTorrent as the largest source of internet traffic in North America while YouTube was still a small-timer. A year has made quite the difference. Netflix is up to 28.8 percent in a new study, while YouTube has moved up to second place with 13.1 percent and demands even more than ordinary web requests. Rivals like Hulu don’t register in the top 10, and YouTube is by far the ruler of mobile with nearly 31 percent of smartphone traffic headed its way. Overall usage is moving up rapidly, no matter what kind of network the continent uses — the typical North American chews up 659MB per month when mobile and a hefty 51GB through a landline. There’s little reason to dispute worries of the impact on bandwidth-strained internet providers, although we suspect most would disagree with Sandvine on what’s to be done. The company naturally sees the study as a chance for business with carriers wanting to curb usage or charge extra through its tools; a generation that grew up with internet access, however, would likely see it as a better excuse to roll out more capacity for all those streaming videos.
Filed under: Networking, Internet, HD
Sandvine: Netflix up to 29 percent of North American internet traffic, YouTube is fast on the rise originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Yes, everyone hates traffic cameras. They catch you rushing through the intersection when the light changes from yellow to red, and if you make a right turn on red when you aren’t supposed to. The worst part is not even realizing you triggered a traffic camera, and just getting that damned ticket in the mail with a photo of your car. People are always trying to come up with ways to defeat traffic cameras, but most of the methods are straight-up snake oil – or straight-up illegal.
The guys over at noPhoto aim to defeat traffic cameras by developing a portable xenon strobe circuit that goes off the instant the traffic camera triggers, blinding it with a light source mounted on your vehicle. According to its developers, the noPhoto doesn’t violate any laws that prevent you from obscuring or obstructing your license plate – instead just overwhelming the camera’s sensor, and creating a useless, overexposed image.
Sure, the whole idea is borderline illegal, but it’s still kind of cool to know that it can be done – and doesn’t everyone want to stick it to those damned traffic cameras? If you’re interested in exercising your right (or not) to have a flashing strobe mounted on your license plate frame, head on over to IndieGogo and show your support for the noPhoto project. A pledge of at least $285(USD) will get you in on the action.
[via r/gadgets]
In a few short years Volvos-the fancy ones, anyway-will include a cruise-control system that lets your car drive and steer itself through crawling traffic. So if your daily commute involves a long stretch sitting in a jam, you’ll be able to sit back and read a book, get caught up on work, or just keep your hands free for communicating with fellow motorists. More »
Some walk lights have buttons you can press to let the system know that there are pedestrians waiting to cross, while some others have a Pong game unit instead.
Too bad you can only find the latter in Germany.
Apparently someone thought that pedestrians needed some entertainment while they wait for the lights to turn red. That entertainment came in the form of Street Pong. These basically allow pedestrians on opposite sides of the street to play pong while the cars go zooming past.
The cool thing is that there’s actually a timer which counts down just how much playing time you have left before it’s time to cross the street.
Awesome stuff. Now if we can only get these everywhere.
[via Geekologie]
Google is bringing voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation to Android smartphone users in India. While the functionality’s been available since January if you’ve rooted your device, the official version lands today with a localized “Indian English” voice option. At the same time, it’s adding live traffic information for major roads in big cities like Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad — with both arriving today on handsets running Gingerbread and up. At the same time, it’s giving Google Map Maker and Biking Directions to users in New Zealand — and college students at over 150 universities worldwide will now be able to find themselves thanks to Street View maps on campus. Of course, that does mean you can no longer use Google as an excuse as to why you missed Phys. Ed. 202 next semester.
[Thanks, Devanshu]
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Mobile
Google Maps unveils new features in India, New Zealand and 150 universities worldwide originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 07:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Ever found yourself stuck at the lights convinced that whatever is controlling these things is just trying to test your patience, and that you could do a better job? Well, turns out you might — at least partly — be right. Researchers at the University of Southampton have just revealed that they are investigating the use of artificial intelligence-based traffic lights, with the hope that it could be used in next-generation road signals. The research uses video games and simulations to assess different traffic control systems, and apparently us humans do a pretty good job. The team at Southampton hope that they will be to emulate this human-like approach with new “machine learning” software. With cars already being tested out with WiFi, mobile connectivity and GPS on board for accident prevention, a system such as this could certainly have a lot of data to tap into. There’s no indication as to when we might see a real world trial, but at least we’re reminded, for once, that as a race we’re not quite able to be replaced by robotic overlords entirely.
Filed under: Science, Software, Alt
Scientists investigating AI-based traffic control, so we can only blame the jams on ourselves originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Aug 2012 21:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Live traffic info likely prevents many a clenched fist meeting steering wheel every single day. A new trial scheme in Frankfurt Germany, however, could prevent even more unnecessary road-rage. The project involves 120 vehicles from a range of manufacturers, loaded with “car-to-x” technology. Cars will communicate with each other, and with general infrastructure, in an attempt to make roads safe and less congested. As well as basic location data, other tools include a brake light that advises the car behind it once activated, and an obstacle warning system to share information on the presence and location of hazards — as well as what those blockages are. The project is a collaboration between Universities, research institutes, telecom providers — and of course — the auto industry. We’re keen to see how the trial turns out. Even if it’s just to lower our next taxi fare.
Continue reading Road safety project simTD connects cars, infrastructure. Hopes to save lives, time
Filed under: Transportation
Road safety project simTD connects cars, infrastructure. Hopes to save lives, time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Google has expanded its Maps traffic coverage before, but rarely on a grand scale. The search giant isn’t standing on tradition this time: it just flipped on live traffic data for at least the major roads in over 130 cities. Most of the coverage centers around smaller cities in the US, although Google is tipping its hat to Latin America with first-time support for Bogota, San Jose (in Costa Rica) and Panama City. Coverage has also been improved in a dozen other countries worldwide. While the widened reach still won’t ease the burden of anyone already caught in a traffic jam, any democratization of smarter driving directions is good in our book.
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS
Google Maps adds live traffic for over 130 cities, boosts existing coverage originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 18:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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