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Philip L. Winters, Center for Urban Transportation Research at USF. Problem. Past vehicle-based GPS tracking give low-resolution view of daily travel behavior Are these GPS fixes: Points-of-interest? Stops in traffic? Difficult to extract info: Distance traveled Origin-Destination pairs
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Philip L. Winters, Center for Urban Transportation Research at USF
Problem • Past vehicle-based GPS tracking give low-resolution view of daily travel behavior • Are these GPS fixes: • Points-of-interest? • Stops in traffic? • Difficult to extract info: • Distance traveled • Origin-Destination pairs • Misses non-vehicle trips
Innovation • USF’s TRAC-IT can capture “high-definition” view of travel behavior • Much easier to determine: • Path, distance traveled • Origin-Destination pairs • Avg. speeds • Can capture transit/bike/walk trips Sprint CDMA EV-DO Rev. A network
New Problem • We can record GPS fixes as frequently as once per second and send to our server • However, frequent GPS fixes come at great cost to: • battery energy • data transfer over network • Both battery life and cell network data transfer are very limited resources
One-day Requirement Sprint CDMA EV-DO Rev. A network Sprint CDMA EV-DO Rev. A network
What is “Stationary”?Detecting User Movement 4 second GPS sampling 5 minute GPS sampling • GPS noise causes uncertainty in states • Many false transitions waste battery energy
4 second GPS sampling 5 minute GPS sampling Auto-Sleep to Reduce Energy Consumption Dynamicallychange the GPS sampling interval on the phone US Patent 8,036,679 October 11, 2011
Evaluation – Summary of 30 tests • Approx. 88% mean accuracy in state tracking • Avg. doubling of battery life (based on TRAC-IT tests)
Using TRAC-IT to Assess Variable Pricing Impacts on Carshare User Behavior
Case Study - Carsharing Summary Results • Provided flip-phones for test and control subjects • Carried phone for all trips (passive data collection) • Varied hourly price in peak to shift time of rentals • Provided daily summary and map of trips via email • Collected data for two 3-week data collection periods; data instantly transmitted to us
Lessons Learned Pluses Minuses Need to carry a second phone/charger Providing cell phones and data plans More work needed to differentiate “points of interest” from stuck in traffic when passively collecting data A current research focus • Providing phone with data only capabilities rather than software reduced need to test on multiple platforms and provided additional privacy protection • Continuous tracking while moving without running out of battery energy • Passive collection with free-text self-validation worked well with extended period of data collection • Phone instantly provides data to identify problems quickly • Virtually limitless length of field deployment
Contact Info Philip L. Winters Director, TDM Program Center for Urban Transportation Research University of South Florida winters@cutr.usf.edu 813.974.9811
“Asleep” Sanyo Pro 200 Sprint CDMA EV-DO Rev. A network “Awake”
Evaluation – Daily Tracking Impact of GPS Auto-Sleep on Battery Life Sanyo Pro 200 Sprint CDMA EV-DO Rev. A network
Patent issued on Oct. 11, 2011 US Patent # 8,036,679 Optimizing Performance of Location-Aware Applications using State Machines
Utility & Commercialization • We have been tracking high-def travel behavior of over 30 participants over 9 months • Using TRAC-IT mobile app w/ GPS Auto-Sleep • USDOT-funded Value Pricing project • DAJUTA, a Florida-based company, has non-exclusively licensed the technology from USF • Other companies are also expressing interest • GPS Auto-Sleep is one module in “Location-Aware Information Systems Client (LAISYC)” framework • 15 patents pending on other modules
New Idea • What if we could dynamically change the GPS sampling interval on the phone? • Use four second sampling interval when moving • Use five minute interval when stopped • Challenges: • Can we create mobile apps that do this? • Would this be enough to make a difference in battery life? • How do we handle GPS noise when trying to detect movement?
Detecting User Movement 4 second GPS sampling 5 minute GPS sampling • What if we represent this binary, or two-state, problem more like a continuum?
Gradually change GPS interval from “awake” to “asleep” based on certainty in user’s movement With some data (e.g., very high speeds) snap back to “awake” New invention – GPS Auto-Sleep “AWAKE” “ASLEEP” 22
Sanyo Pro 200 Sprint CDMA EV-DO Rev. A network