Mobile Millenium may be trying to sort out the traffic problems in the Bay Area, but engineering students at Purdue University are doing something a little more interesting. The students have come up with a way to track traffic without the use of GPS. Nope, they’re not involved with Aichi Steel, they’re using Bluetooth. Because each Bluetooth signal is unique, the Purdue students were able to track the vehicular traffic leaving a recent Penn State football game by using 13 tracking stations along Interstate 65. They actually found that a 5.2 mile northern route took half the time to travel than the 4.2 mile southern route!
The other upside to Bluetooth traffic tracking: privacy. Yes, GPS is private. But traditional methods of traffic tracking typically require license plate recording which can reveal your identity. The Purdue students used an antennae in the Penn State stadium to pull 1520 Bluetooth addresses out of more than 57000 fans. They say it is up to 200% less invasive than other tracking methods, not to mention more effective. Tough I’m assuming they never used GPS.
via crave
(Image Credit: eszter)
