Us postal trucks to be outfitted with data collecting equipment or else will be privatized12/20/2010  FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES THE Postal Service recently announced it had lost $8.5 billion in the last year, despite cutting more than 100,000 jobs. Without new revenue and other changes to get it back on a firm financial footing, it said, it could face insolvency by the end of 2011. Fortunately, the service has a unique asset that could allow it to make money by collecting valuable data that would contribute to the country’s safety and economic health: its far-reaching network of trucks. The service’s thousands of delivery vehicles have only one purpose now: to transport mail. But what if they were fitted with sensors to collect and transmit information about weather or air pollutants? The trucks would go from being bulky tools of industrial-age communication to being on the cutting edge of 21st-century information-gathering and forecasting. After all, the delivery fleet already goes to almost every home and business in America nearly every day, and it travels fixed routes along a majority of the country’s roads to get there. Data collection wouldn’t require much additional staff or resources; all it would take would be a small, cheap and unobtrusive sensor package mounted on each truck. (This idea is mine alone, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Postal Regulatory Commission.) The key elements for the project already exist, including tiny, inexpensive G.P.S. receivers and radio uplinks, features found in today’s smart phones. The sensors would operate without distracting the drivers from their primary responsibilities. The service could also minimize startup costs by teaming up with a company to develop, install and operate the equipment. One company under contract with the National Weather Service is already installing environmental sensors on long-haul commercial buses to enhance weather forecasting. READ MORE  From consumer reports All “clear” on bypassing airport security again? An opt-in program that charges airline passengers to bypass airport security lines is being resuscitated more than two years after its abrupt shutdown. The CLEAR program re-launched in Orlando last week, and is preparing to start up in Denver. After submitting fingerprints and iris scans, members are issued a CLEARcard with these biometric data. Kiosks at participating airports then allow them to confirm their identity and “speed through security.” Verified Identity Pass shut down the previous program suddenly in June 2009, leaving approximately 165,000 members without refunds. The new owners—Alclear, LLC—purchased CLEAR’s assets in bankruptcy reorganization, and are offering reinstatement to those who were left stranded. Under the current terms, membership will be renewed upon first use or when CLEAR begins operating in the member’s home market, whichever occurs first. READ MORE Mobile indoor GPS cummin soon From popular science shills Our GPS-wielding smartphones have made it somewhat difficult to get lost, say, on the way to the museum. But if you’re waiting for the day your phone will also help you navigate to a specific painting once you’re inside, you might be waiting a while. The technology exists, but no single version is perfect. And a lack of a standout Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) technology means there is no broad agreement on which technology should become the new standard. Several IPS technologies have been unveiled over recent weeks and months, and like GPS they rely heavily on radio signals. But radio signals aren’t well suited for location sensing indoors – architectural features and modern construction materials distort radio waves at every bend and turn, literally. There are two prevailing philosophies in IPS development, neither of which solves that problem. Received signal strength (RSS) requires devices to know the strength of a radio signal at its origin, measuring the signal’s drop in intensity by the time it reaches the receiver to figure distance. Using two or more signals, devices can triangulate their positions. The other tech – time of arrival, or ToA – does roughly the same thing but instead reads time stamps embedded in signals to calculate distance from a transmitter, much as GPS does. Read more  Motorists encouraged to spy on rogue drivers (telegraph) Motorists are being encouraged to spy on each other and report incidents of antisocial driving to the police under a new scheme. By Heidi BlakeMotorists are being encouraged to report antisocial driving Photo: PAThousands of drivers have been reported by fellow motorists after being spotted speeding, drink driving or talking on mobile phones. Anyone reported twice in a year could face police action under the scheme, named Operation Crackdown. The culprits could receive a home visit or a warning letter. Sussex Police is trialling the campaign and has already received 20,488 reports from the public. Warning letters have been sent to 2,695, while a further 1,047 have been sanctioned for offences such as having an out-of-date tax disc. The scheme, under which reports are submitted anonymously online, could be rolled out nationally if it is deemed a success. But privacy campaigners have likened it to the tactics of the Stasi in East Germany, which encouraged residents to inform on one another. Dylan Sharpe, of the campaign group Big Brother Watch, warned that Operation Crackdown is "based on unfounded accusations by untrained and possibly prejudiced members of the public". He added: "This scheme is wide open to abuse, ranging from people with minor grudges against neighbours to busybody drivers who think they know what constitutes bad driving." A newsletter promoting the scheme reads: "Are you fed up with anti-social drivers? People who still use their mobile phones while driving, not wearing seat belts or those who insist on getting right up your bumper and are really annoying and dangerous to others." Sussex Police said in a statement: "1,047 drivers have had sanctions imposed on them including 28 for driving while under the influence, 175 vehicles have been seized for being driven without insurance, 376 have been reported to the DVLA for document offences and local councils have seized 64 vehicles for not having current road fund licence". READ MORE  I thought they just made texting while driving illegal??? From technology Review Wednesday, September 15, 2010 License Plates Used for Public Messaging Apps that read license plates can send notes to their owners, and help businesses track customers.By Tom SimoniteNext time you're stuck in traffic, take a look at the license plates on the cars around you. To a user ofbump.com--which launches today--each one is like an email address that can be used to contact the owner, whether to tell them a rear light is out or that you like their bumper sticker. "To send a message you just need to specify state and plate," Bump's VP of technology John Albers-Mead told me at the DEMO conference in Santa Clara, California, where the La Jolla, California, firm will launch this afternoon. Anyone that has registered their license plate can pick up those messages while an upcoming smartphone app--initially for iPhone but later Android too--will use image recognition to make sending messages easier. When using it you simply snap a photo of a license plate after which it is processed in the cloud to direct your message appropriately. Initially you have to specify a plate to contact manually, or using an automated call-in service. Developing the image recognition software wasn't easy, says Albers-Mead, because different states use different styles and fonts on their plates. He and the rest of the bump team have been using the retired police cruiser below to test the software's abilities. When hooked up to a collection of cameras and infrared lights on the cruiser's light rack the software proved capable of identifying up to five plates a second even at freeway speeds. Using license plates for a novel communications network may sound like fun, even if Bump will surely have to deal with problems like spam. But the firm also says that being able to recognize license plates and message a car's owner could has the potential to be of serious interest to businesses. "It allows us to track users, it's like putting a cookie on a car," says Albers-Mead, likening his technology to the small files used to track web users and offer functionality like autologins online. Once connected up to Bump's tech, a camera at a store or drive-in burger joint could, for example, showing menu choices similar to those you've selected before. That extra data could be valuable to store owners, Bump say, who could also make use of the messaging functions. "You could register as a fan of the Dodgers and then receive a message welcoming you to the stadium and offering discount vouchers when you visit," says Albers-Mead. READ MORE |    See all tech news here
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