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Mapping Speed Traps Service for GPS-Enabled Cell Phones
posted by Satri
on Friday April 04, @07:45AM
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from the do-you-mean-you're-not-a-safe-driver? dept.
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from the do-you-mean-you're-not-a-safe-driver? dept.
Slashdot discuss a new service mapping speed traps using GPS-enabled cellphones. Their summary: "In a modern equivalent of flashing your headlights to warn other motorists of police speed traps, you can now warn fellow drivers with a cell phone or personal digital assistant about speed traps, red-light cameras, and other threats to ticket-free driving. And as you approach a known threat, you'll get an audio alert on your mobile device. The developer of Trapster, Pete Tenereillo, said the system, which requires punching in a few keys such as '#1' to submit information to Trapster's database, should comply with laws banning talking on cell phones. The free service can automatically detect location using mobile devices' GPS capabilities or tap their Wi-Fi and get location from a database run by Skyhook Wireless. Police officials that Tenereillo has talked to haven't complained about the service because it inevitably encourages drivers to slow down." See also previous related stories below
Related Stories
Britain to Log All Vehicle Movement
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Slashdot links to a The Independant article about Britain being the first country to monitor every car journey. The Slashdot summary goes like this: "Using a network of cameras that can record license plates, Britain plans to build a database of vehicle movement for police and security services: rollout begins in March. Can't someone just swap/steal/disable the tracking device? Seems to me just another way to track the average citizen and not those wishing to avoid authorities."
Cruise Control for the Masses
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Jim Pruett writes "We have a new approach to avoiding speeding tickets. New gizmo called a Gpscruiser holds the position of speed limit signs. Hook it to your existing Rostra Cruise control and have it run your gas pedal or perhaps you just want to know if you're speeding. My wife has hers setup to play "bad boys..." whenever shes speeding.
Its not that farfetched. I log 100 points per day and its dirt easy to upload them to gpscruise.com. They show up here immediately:
http://www.readynote.com/gpscruise/maps.html
Best of all, its open source and completely tested.
(no warrantee, so dont sue us)
Cheers
G.P.S Cruiser."
Tracking Cars in Real-Time for Law Enforcement in the U.K.
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Slashdot links and discuss a story about U.K. police officers allowed to track cars in real-time. Their summary: "The BBC is reporting that anti-terror Police officers in London have been given live access to the "congestion charge cameras", allowing them to view and track vehicles in real time. This is a change from the original procedure that required them to apply for access on a case-by-case basis. "Under the new rules, anti-terror officers will be able to view pictures in "real time" from Transport for London's (Tfl) 1,500 cameras, which use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to link cars with owners' details. But they will only be able to use the data for national security purposes and not to fight ordinary crime, the Home Office stressed."" See also the interesting related stories below.
Technology: Geospatial as Tattletale and GPS Used in Speeding Case
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Slashdot discussed two geospatial-related stories over the weekend. The first one on the increasing presence of location-sensing technologies, and the second one on a radar speeding case where inboard GPS is used as defense. This last story reminds me of the cruise control for the masses story a year ago. From the NY Times article tied to the first link: "The change is powered less by new technologies than the artful combination of existing ones, mainly the Internet, cellphones and G.P.S. satellites. In some cases, the new devices linked to these systems can even detect a theft before it happens."
Technology: Project Turns GPS Phones Into Traffic Reporters
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This story is currently being discussed on slashdot. This is kinda another kicker into to dash business model which just tanked earlier this week. Here is the slashdot summary : "Starting on Monday, researchers from Nokia and UC Berkeley will kick off the Mobile Millennium project. The researchers hope that thousands of volunteers will download a free Java program that figures out by their movement and location when they are driving, and then transmits that information to the project's servers, which then crunch it into a Bay Area traffic map. 'The whole concept here is that if everyone shares just a little bit of what they're seeing ... then everyone can benefit by seeing the conditions ahead of them,' said Quinn Jacobson, a research leader with Nokia in Palo Alto."
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Mapping Speed Traps Service for GPS-Enabled Cell Phones
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