Slashgeo

Slashdot discuss the advent of peer to peer networking for road traffic. Their summary: "The BBC is reporting on some German research to allow the exchange of information between road vehicles about travel conditions using peer to peer networking (I assume some sort of mesh). Cars or bikes experiencing problems would pass data that would ripple down the chain of vehicles behind them. 'For example, cars could spot oil on the road by combining temperature readings with wheel traction information. A wheel slipping on the road even though the temperature was not low enough for frost or ice would suggest oil or another slippery substance was present. Once a car detected this sort of danger, information about it would be generated and passed down the line of vehicles approaching the patch of oil.'"

All Points Blog discuss a new service by Inrix which provide predictive and real-time traffic service for Windows Mobile devices. This site indicates which information is used: "Inrix acquires real-time and historical sensor data from hundreds of public and private sources including anonymous, real-time GPS probe data from more than 625,000 commercial fleet, delivery and taxi vehicles; toll tag data; and occupancy and speed measurements from Department of Transportation sensor networks. Additionally, the Inrix Smart Dust Network aggregates real-time incidents and hundreds of market-specific criteria that affect traffic – such as construction and road closures, sporting and entertainment events, school schedules and weather forecasts." See the numerous related stories below.

Slashdot is discussing a story on improving GPS navigation systems with traffic flow data. Their summary: "According to a story in Technology Review, some GPS companies are factoring in traffic flow and time of day. From the article: 'Tele Atlas, a Boston-based company that provides digital maps and navigational content, has integrated new trafficking software into its map database so that drivers can find the most optimal route based on speed rather than distance — for any stretch of road at any hour of any day of the week."

The official Google Lat Long blog informs us the Google Book Search feature has found its way to Google Earth (previously on Slashgeo), in the mean time, they also announced real-time traffic directly in Google Earth. From the first announcement: "Did you ever wonder what Lewis and Clark said about your hometown as they passed through? What about if any other historical figures wrote about your part of the world? Earlier this year, we announced a first step toward geomapping the world's literary information by starting to integrate information from Google Book Search into Google Maps. Today, the Google Book Search and Google Earth teams are excited to announce the next step: a new layer in Earth that allows you to explore locations through the lens of the world's books." Ogle Earth shares what he thinks of the new features, including screenshots. I take this opportunity to share a few older Google-related stories not yet featured on Slashgeo; a tutorial to create QuickTime VR panoramas out of Google Earth. The previous announcement on rush hour taken into account when evaluating directions within Google Maps. And finally, the inclusion of sponsored links capabilities in the Google Maps API, allowing you to display Google Ads on your Google Maps. See also related stories below.

Slashdot discuss an experiment using GPS-enabled cellphones to monitor traffic. Their summary: "On February 8, 2008, about 100 UC Berkeley students will participate in the Mobile Century experiment, using GPS mobile phones as traffic sensors. During the whole day, these students carrying the GPS-equipped Nokia N95 will drive along a 10-mile stretch of I-880 between Hayward and Fremont, California. 'The phones will store the vehicles' speed and position information every 3 seconds. These measurements will be sent wirelessly to a server for real-time processing.' As more and more cellphones are GPS-equipped, the traffic engineering community, which currently monitors traffic using mostly fixed sensors such as cameras and loop detectors, is tempted to use our phones to get real-time information about traffic." Some related stories copied below, including a story on mandatory cellphone tracking in the U.S.

The Earth Is Square blog, has an article featuring the CNN video review of this product. From their summary : "Found this CNN video on the Dash Networking GPS. What made this GPS interesting for me was the traffic updating and the finding gas stations and sorting by the latest price. But the "downfall" of this GPS with the traffic conditions is that you need multiple vehicles in the area also using the Dash GPS so that you get a detailed traffic report."

This story was also covered in this article. For more information, and to see the video, head on over to the Earth Is Square blog.