| Enforcement
authorities for long have been able to track movements of people with
the help of the cell phones used by them, but now researchers at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have electronically mapped
a whole city with the help of just the cell phone usage data. This in
future could help authorities in responding to issues like traffic
congestion and disasters in a city.
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| Using anonymous
cell phone data, the researchers at the premier US institute created
electronic maps of Graz, the second-largest city in Austria. |
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| “The real-time
city is now real: A system that is able to continuously sense its
condition and quickly react to its criticalities,” says Carlo Ratti,
architect, engineer and head of the project at the Sensible City
Laboratory, MIT. |
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| A cell phone
network operating in the city of Graz sent anonymous information about
the density of cell phone calls made and the origin and destination of
calls. Combined with this, the team used the data of voluntary
participants who agreed to get their mobiles “pinged” by the team, to
map a whole city in all its vibrancy. |
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| Ratti and his team used anonymous and voluntary data to offer traffic planners a new way to track congested areas in Graz. |
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| The
computer-generated images showing the physical landscape of Graz and
colourful representations in red, green and yellow showing how much the
phones were being used during the time of the research are currently in
display at the M-City Exhibition at Kunsthaus Graz. |
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| Experts believe
that the research could be put to use in times of large-scale
emergencies as it is possible to simultaneously ‘ping’ the cell phones
of thousands of users _ thereby establishing their precise location in
space at a given moment in time. |
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Despite the
apparent advantages involved in the use of the technology, Ratti
believes that the availability of such dynamic information will raise
new questions like how should location information be managed and by
whom.
Calling on to Earth
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The research could be put to use in times of large-scale
emergencies as it is possible to simultaneously ‘ping’ the cell phones
of thousands of users
However, the availability of such dynamic information will
raise new questions like how should location information be managed and
by whom |
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