Nokia and UC Berkeley researchers tested technology that could soon transform the way drivers navigate through congested highways and obtain information about road conditions. One hundred cars equipped with the GPS-enabled Nokia N95, and driven by students from the University of California, traveled a 10-mile stretch of highway near San Francisco to show how real-time traffic information can be collected from the GPS feed, while preserving the privacy of the devices' owners.
The experiment was carried out to test the traffic data collection and aggregation system, while studying the trade-offs between data accuracy, personal privacy, and data collection costs. The software aggregating the GPS feeds immediately disassociates that data from an individual device and combines it with the general stream of traffic data. To protect privacy, all data is anonymous and aggregated, and protected by banking-grade encryption
During the experiment, special software on the mobile devices periodically sent anonymous speed and location readings from the integrated GPS to servers. The feeds were then combined to create a real-time picture of traffic speeds and projected travel times.
Quinn Jacobson, Research Leader at Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto, told that if users wish, they can turn of transmission of GPS data at any time.
According to Berkeley, if a mere 5% of drivers would continuously transmit GPS data, that could completely replace the traffic monitoring systems currently in use.
Translated by Szaszati
