What can I tell you, some titles are better than others.
Heard an interesting story on NPR this morning. An article in the current Science magazine talks about the potential inherent in being able to 'tag' movement through the tracking of electronic signals carried by many of the species. Only in this case, the species is human, and the tracking device is cell phones, which constantly report their position to the cell network as the holder moves around. The finding was that the mass of human movement - going into the city around a certain time, moving through the streets around the middle of the day, heading to shopping areas in the evening -- is significantly predictable, especially as you aggregate the points of data, and thus gives information about what you can expect that most people will do. The implications for transit and urban planning are obvious. I recall reading some time ago of a project -- I'm not sure if it was a proof-of-concept thing or an actual implementation -- whereby the cell phone signals from people in vehicles were tracked -- not this way, which was looking at movement, but in terms of volume, on the assumption that when people find their commute slowing down, they tend to get on the phone and call to say they'll be late; thus, a spike in volume suggests a problem in traffic. Either that, or Michael Jackson just died.
I think it's a fascinating concept, so long as I don't have to wear one of those little tracking collars on my ankle.
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