Road and Driving Pattern Analyzer using Ultrabook™

Introduction

Application Sub-Category: Entertainment | Desktop app

Application is utilizing novel Ultrabooks™ feature set, in particular GPS, Accelerometer and Ambient Light Sensors, allowing real-time data acquisition and analysis of route trace and driving patterns and conditions. Intended primarily for Motosport racing professionals (e.g. NASCAR) it can also be used by general public, either professional drivers or travelers.

Use cases 

1. Motosport racing professionals to acquire/analyze driving information
2. Professional/amature drivers to acquire/analyze driving and traffic patterns 
3. Mass transit authorities to acquire/analyze driving and traffic patterns
4. Traveler/tourists to acquire/analyze driving patterns and detect potential "unfair" routing practice by taxi-cab drivers 

Core software modules

• Real-time data acquisition of geographical information (uniform/adaptive sampling)
• Real-time data acquisition of vehicle movement dynamics
• Real-time data acquisition of ambient light information
• Real-time "Find nearby" module using Microsoft Bing™ Mapping technology
• Route tracer using Microsoft Bing™ Mapping technology 
• Charting engine to visualize driving pattern and other vehicle movement dynamic data

Background

Systemic approach to GPS-enabled application design

Since the early days of the GIS (geographic information system) and Geo-map technology adoption (like Google Maps or Microsoft Bing™) the seemingly infinite variety of use-cases essentially can be boiled down to just 2 fundamentals, namely:

1. Find Location, i.e. the geographical point on the map
2. Find  Nearby, i.e. some Points of Interest (POI) in a close proximity, where POI can be potentially any noun found in English dictionary (and some other languages, as well)

As an example of early geo-map development, interactive Map of NASCAR Racing Tracks (see sample screenshot in Fig 1), was developed approximately 6 years ago, implementing these 2 fundamental use cases: show on the map the Racing Track Location and implement the Find Nearby capability regarding various POI like bus stops, food and beverage, hotels, parking, etc. (see sample screenshot in Fig.2). Approximately at the same time,  Geocoder application was developed, capable of providing geographic coordinates (Latitude and Longitude) of the locations based on their postal address, or just a ZIP-code in the US (see sample screenshot in Fig. 3 that shows The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY).

Fig 1 Sample screenshot of Motosport racing tracks in North America

Fig.2 Sample screenshot of "Find" Point of Interest ("food" selected) on the Race Track map

Fig.3 Online Geocoder user guide

Using the code

The application is extending the typical use-cases of finding some POI nearby from static to dynamic (real-time) mode, plus it provides a novel vehicle movement dynamic and driving condition analysis, in particular, regarding acceleration/deceleration/speed profile, road traffic, ambient light condition, etc.

The applications mentioned above have been partially described on Codeplex [3]. Working demo [2,5] and detailed description are available online at [1,3,4]. Application under development should utilize shared Ultrabook-related solutions, partially developed in a course of project [6]. As a contest entry, this Application contain certain proprietary content/code base.

Points of Interest

Working on the geo-mapping technology "Find nearby" module, I thought it's relevant to mention that using existing Google Maps of Microsoft Bing,  it's relatively hard to find such quintessentially important POI (Point of Interest) as "Public Restrooms" (Bathrooms/Toilets) in a big City like NY (search query on Google returned just 2 locations, and not exactly what was expected). Thus, I consider extending the proprietary search engine with more of such Locations added to the Bing map by using the custom pushpins as described in [3]. Btw, I have addressed this issue previously in my NY trivia quiz (see the link and the quote below. Warning: some humor added; possible side effect - LOL, even ROFL)

Quiz. Where are the restrooms at NYC Madame Tussauds wax museum located?
a). Behind John Travolta
b). Behind Jennifer Lopez
c). Behind Buffalo Bill
d). Next to Mikhail Gorbachev

Fig.4 NY trivia quiz

History

Application framework has been developed and partially prototyped/tested in simulated environment.

References

1. How to use online geocoders and interactive maps
2. Free online Geocoder
3. Add objects to Microsoft Bing™ Map
4. Microsoft Bing SDK
5. Motosport Racing Tracks in North America, Interactive Map
6. Edumatter M12: School Math Calculators and Equation Solvers