Anonymous GPS Tracking to the Rescue

I’ve written here a number of time before about the hidden benefits of GPS tracking.  While many seem overly-concerned about invasions of their privacy, those who can see a little further into the future can see how using anonymous information that is being produced by their own GPS tracking, coupled with the data from thousands of other equally anonymous users can benefit all.  reduced fuel costs.  reduced pollution. Reduced time on the road … all equal an easier workday and increased bottom line profits to business.

What is Mobile Millennium?

Phone with traffic flow map

Mobile Millennium is a partnership between Nokia, NAVTEQ, and UC Berkeley, based at the California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT), a deployment-focused research center at Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies. It is supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s SafeTrip-21 Initiative and the California Department of Transportation.

Researchers from Nokia and Berkeley have constructed an unprecedented traffic monitoring system capable of fusing GPS data from cell phones with data from existing traffic sensors. The research and development phase of this project was dubbed Mobile Millennium for the potential thousands of early adopters who will participate in the pilot deployment, launching in early November, 2008.

Mobile Millennium will cover not only highways, but also the arterial network, where there is currently almost no sensing infrastructure. The software will work on Nokia and non-Nokia phones, and the public will be able to register and download it free of charge.

This is pretty much a no\brainer.  In return for the information your phone produces anyway, you get back a detailed picture of not only where you are, but where you are going and how long it will take to get there.  Hats off to GPS tracking, another form or ROI.