Traffic reports via video blogs or MMS
Published October 12th, 2005 in IdeasA picture is worth a thousand words
I don’t know about the rest of the world but the AA in Ireland run traffic updates on some of the major radio stations. I happened to come across this story about aspiring mobile phone weather presenters gathering for auditions for a video based mobile phone service.
Only in Japan I bet most people are thinking, but with the growth of multimedia content on phones and improved capabilities due to 3G, surely this is likely to become a growing trend.
Why text into a radio station if there is a traffic jam, if you could snap a picture of it on your mobile and send it to a website for the public to see? I wouldn’t say that this would replace the radio updates. Obviously people are sitting in cars listening to these and don’t have a computer in front of them. However, for those that are about to leave their homes or office, an image of a traffic jam or road diversion would have a much better impact on them. As a result they would have a much better sense of how bad the disruption is and could plan their routes better.
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5 Responses to “Traffic reports via video blogs or MMS”
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Modern mobile technologies give even more possibilities. Few weeks ago I was going to launch a traffic-info-center with my friend. As you probably know - you can estimate the position of the mobile phone (something like really simple GPS). The idea was:
1. java or flash application which will allow you to send/receive short info about traffic. Just like “1″ for empty roads and “10″ for keep away from here!
2. Web engine which collects such mesages. If message is confirmed by few members - then it’s marked as “important and true”
3. Send a flash text (text that apears directly to your mobile display) to all registered user who are around the traffic or are on their way to the traffic (requires constant monitoring of position)
Unfortunately for the moment it’s too expensive to get a permision to use “location engine” from polish mobile companies. Maybe it will be easier in Ireland. Together with your video-reporting idea - that can be a really smart service. Good luck!
Now Tomasz that would be a great idea for Ireland, that would be a sweet one for O2, Vodafone, 3 and possibly Meteor to pick up.
You can’t really get a sense of a traffic jam from a rubbish photograph taken with a mobile phone.. unless you are in one of those new floating cars that at the press of a button levitates the car up 100 feet and allow you to proceed on your merry way AND take a photograph which shows the traffic properly.
Without this new type of floating car, what is the photograph going to look like? The back of someone elses car and maybe the one in front and not much more else.
Unless the traffic is in the other direction and then you’d get a perfect view
Ah yeah, there’s that and the wide angle lens attachment for your camera phone !