New mobile technologies will be able to guide motorists around traffic jams and deliver information about restaurants and other services instantly over the phone, writes Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor
IMAGINE SIMPLY pointing your mobile phone at a bank to get balances or organise a loan. Point it at a restaurant and you can make a booking or receive a menu by instant text. These are just some of the innovations expected from a new research project announced recently by NUI Maynooth.
Strongly multi-disciplinary and involving a collection of third-level institutions and companies, the project will integrate data from Geographical Information Systems (GIS) such as the orbiting Global Positioning System with the wealth of information already available from other data-producing systems, from CCTV to sensors.
"The first intelligent city is not that far away," says the director of the new €9 million project, Prof Stewart Fotheringham.
The StratAG project, Strategic Research in Advanced Geotechnologies, is a strategic research cluster funded by Science Foundation Ireland. The clusters aim to bring groups of academics into contact with private companies with a view to developing technologies and innovative products.
Maynooth will lead the initiative, which has a team of about 40, with researchers also from Trinity College, University College Dublin and the Dublin Institute of Technology.
The initial four private sector firms taking part include ESRI Ireland, which develops GIS software; eSpatial Ltd, another GIS specialist; PMS (Pavement Management Systems); and BKS land surveyors.
The main role of the new project is to "promote the use of GIS in spatial data analysis", says Prof Fotheringham. They will look for applications "which have location attached to them".
For example, he hopes to develop intelligent satellite navigation systems that not only give directions but can detect and provide warnings of traffic jams. The system will then suggest alternative routes to avoid the blockage.
"Most of the money is being spent on developing new people and new technologies for Ireland," says Fotheringham.
"What we do is very applied. We want to develop a mobile phone that you point at a building and it tells you what is going on there. We are able to acquire huge amounts of data. The challenge is to convert the data into useable, useful information."
He acknowledges that this is no small thing to achieve. "It is something that is very easy to say but it is very complicated to do."
Equally difficult is finding a way to integrate the data streaming into a single processing system from unconnected sources, he says.
"A key challenge we are working to solve is to get a common language between all the different types of sensors, such as CCTV, satellites and radio frequency ID monitors, so that we can develop a more complete picture of what is happening in an area."
A practical application of this is already under way, as Maynooth develops its emergency management plan. The team is creating a 3D computer replica of the university's North Campus using sensors placed across the campus.
The system is designed to send back real-time feedback on student movements through the general space. The idea is to find typical patterns of movement and traffic flow that will help inform the development of health and safety procedures.
The research also has social dimensions. "Location-based technology aims to allow friends and family to find each other by tracking each other on their mobile phones, giving their location in real time," he suggests. "The possibilities for this line of research are endless, entering what was once thought to be the realm of science fiction."
Systems that provide a high level of spatial information would also serve the disabled. A real-time 3D computer representation of an area could help guide a visually impaired person safely through a given space.
The research clusters, funded by Science Foundation Ireland, require company participation, but in this case State bodies are also involved, says Prof Fotheringham.
Commercial collaborations are expected to flow from the StratAG project.
• More information on the StratAG programme is available on the web site, www.stratag.ie