SmartMobs writes about a project that uses the distributed sensoring power of mobile phones for analysing traffic data. So for context aware learning apps we can also use the sensors of others for learning in the future. Today most apps just use the sensors of the devices users carry around with them (GPS, Movement, Tilting) so but sensors are everywhere, so lets harness the power of these for supporting learning in context. One other app we build in the RAFT project was using a combination of user’s device GPS and infrastructural weather sensors to store additional metainformation about photo’s taken in a certain location.

Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Mobile phones as pervasive traffic sensors

Nokia Research is offering free real time traffic information to users with GPS-enabled mobile devices.

The Mobile Millenium project, which Nokia is developing along with researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, will be available to people as part of a pilot project aimed at collecting and studying traffic data. Currently it covers the greater Bay Area in California; users can download the software for free starting midnight Monday.

“Traffic is very common problem anywhere in the world and it affects issues such as energy consumption and carbon footprint,” says Henry Tirri, vice president and head of Nokia Research Center. “We want to show what you can do with pervasive sensing of the environment through millions of phones that people carry every day.”

Nokia says it believes a community of users with GPS-equipped mobile devices can help reduce traffic by enabling drivers to make better decisions.