"For all the feet on the
street chasing the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, a key break
came when the victim who was carjacked and released by the Tsarnaev
brothers on April 19 told the cops his Mercedes could be tracked with
one quick call to Mercedes-Benz. They called and an hour later the
police had the vehicle surrounded. A shootout ensued and when it was
over, older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev was dead, apparently either from
gunshot wounds or being run over by his brother.
Boston police
aren’t saying much. Mercedes-Benz provided a few details, since the
general workings of its mbrace2 telematics system are well-known and
described on the Mercedes-Benz USA website. Mercedes’ mbrace is a telematics application best-known for upgradable over the air (OTA) updates, without the need for a dealer visit."
The first part of the system is a hub that forms the bridge between the Internet and home devices supporting low-power, wireless protocols like Zigbee and Z-wave. SmartThings adds a set of reference devices to that: a motion sensor, a contact sensor that can be attached to doors and windows, and a low-resolution cloud-controlled camera. You can also use standards-based devices from other manufacturers. Finally, there’s the SmartTag, a keyfob that indicates your presence and also acts as an environment sensor. All kinds of apps will run on top of the basic platform.
no it does not, but two analytical, investigative reporters using interactive maps in their stories at the Sun Sentinel have won the Prize
"Kestin and Maines used SunPass toll records, GPS devices and
shoe-leather reporting to document how some cops, mostly off duty, would
drive their cruisers at 100, 120, even 130 miles per hour. Along the
way, these cops killed or changed people's lives, yet punishment was
rare. And on occasion, they would try to shield one another from the
consequences.
What's most gratifying is how South Florida
communities responded to the reporters' revelations. 163 officers were
disciplined. One who consistently drove over 100 mph in his off hours
was fired. Some officers lost their take-home cars. And more communities
are using the Sun Sentinel's methods to monitor how cops drive their
take-home cars.
"What the Sun Sentinel has done is a service to
all police agencies because if they did not know they had a speeding
problem, now they do," said Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa."
Planned on a similar scale to (the US) GPS, the network (due to be operational in 2017) will have 24 satellites
(the minimal number for global coverage) with six more as backups. Galileo’s main difference from GPS is an orbital altitude 3,000
kilometers (1,864 miles) higher, which in turn points the satellites at a
sharper angle back toward Earth: 56 degrees instead of 52. This will
yield two benefits, project director Marco Falcone says: better coverage
in “urban canyons,” where surrounding buildings can interfere with the
GPS signal, and in the polar regions that European and other companies
will increasingly be tapping for oil and other resources.
Galileo also aims to improve on GPS with a new kind of onboard clock
powered by hydrogen laser technology. Very reliable clocks are
essential: A deviation of one nanosecond—one-billionth of a second—per
day translates to a 30-centimeter (12-inch) mistake in location, Falcone
says. Galileo’s new clock will make the system more accurate than the
current generation of GPS, which has a “worst case” margin of error of
7.8 meters (compared with Galileo’s four).
"North America’s major freight railroads are in the midst of a
building boom unlike anything since the industry’s Gilded Age heyday in
the 19th century—this year pouring $14 billion into rail yards,
refueling stations, additional track. With enhanced speed and
efficiency, rail is fast becoming a dominant player in the nation’s
commercial transport system and a vital cog in its economic recovery."
In the last couple of years I have cataloged quite a few entries on how tech is redefining rail
Experimentation with long trains (like 3.5 miles long below) and placement of locomotives in front, back and middle to prevent derails (called Distributed-power units - train below has 3 locomotives in front and 2 at back)
At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week, Israeli firm PrimeSense showed how their depth sensor called Carmine, is being put to use in myriad applications….Retail is the sector that looks to benefit the most. One firm, Shopperception, uses the sensor to constantly scan the area in front of the shelves in a supermarket to gauge shoppers' behaviour.
“While smartphones are awesome little computers, one of the things that really makes them useful is their built-in sensors - many apps are made possible via a phone's accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, microphone, camera, or some combination of the bunch. The thing is, though, all of those sensors are stuck in the smartphone. What if you want to use your phone to monitor another device? Well, that's where NODE comes in. The proposed gadget could be placed on or near a device, and would wirelessly relay data from multiple onboard sensors, via Bluetooth.”
There’s no telling if Locata will be the technology that breaks through
the various obstacles that have hamstrung previous attempts at indoor
positioning, but there are reasons to think it might. The U.S. military
seems to think it holds serious promise--the Air Force has already
tested Locata’s technology and found it accurate down to less than eight
inches, and the military last month signed a contract to conduct
large-scale testing of the technology at White Sands Missile Range in
New Mexico.
Rather than working via satellites, Locata works off ground-based
signal stations that generate a kind of localized "GPS hotspot." So
Locata doesn't enjoy the benefit of being ubiquitous, always in the sky
for anyone to use anywhere like GPS. But where deployed it is reportedly
a good deal more accurate than GPS boasting far stronger signal
strength, and it works in all those places that GPS signals can't
go--inside sprawling buildings, in subterranean mines or caves, on
factory floors, or on city streets where surrounding buildings interfere
with standard GPS.
"High-occupancy toll lanes quickly are becoming the new fast lane in America. Transportation agencies nationwide, responsible for addressing rapidly growing congestion with rapidly shrinking budgets, are discovering these HOT lanes are cost-effective tools for moving traffic while giving motorists options."
and it is impressive how much technology is going into real-time tolling
“Through numerous demand management techniques — such as changing eligibility requirements, pricing and access control — managed lanes regulate traffic to squeeze more capacity from existing, high-traffic corridors.
Fees vary throughout the day to ease traffic if it begins to get heavy or to encourage customers if use is light. Using congestion pricing, the operator can maintain a high level of traffic flow, even when regular lanes are congested.”
and exemption and enforcement technology as in Atlanta via Gwinett Daily Post
“Each morning, a list of the vehicles who have indicated on their Peach Pass account that they are exempt from the toll -- by having at least three people in the car -- will be downloaded to the officers' laptops, and it will be updated throughout the day.
When an automatic license plate reader picks up one of the vehicles, a ding will alarm, and the officer can look and see if there are at least three people in the car, Wilkins said. If not, they can pull over the drivers and give a $75 ticket,,,
Wilkins said the system allows for people to set their status for an indefinite period of time or to just switch for one day, when maybe a third carpooler won't be along for the ride. The system can also be set to default for one mode on weekdays and another on weekends, if someone plans to carpool during the week but drive alone on weekends or drive alone during the week and have the family in tow on weekends.”
The video below describes a mobile app to set their status. It also shows some of the reactions of local citizens to the tolls
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