Nericell: Rich Monitoring of Road and Traffic Conditions using Mobile Smartphones Presented by Abdelrhman Magdy

The Main Idea Monitoring road traffic condition in a developing region. Nericell uses the accelerometer, microphone, GSM radio, and/or GPS sensors in these phones to detect potholes, bumps, braking, and honking.

The Main Achievements avoid the need for expensive and specialized traffic monitoring infrastructure. avoid the need for CAN protocol in cars, which is not present in most cars (e.g., the 3-wheeled autorickshaws in India) [Translation: Toktok]

The Challenges complex road conditions (e.g., potholed roads), chaotic traffic (e.g., a lot of braking and honking), and a heterogeneous mix of vehicles (2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, cars, buses, etc.).

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Innovation triggered sensing, wherein a sensor that is relatively inexpensive from an energy viewpoint (e.g., cellular radio or accelerometer) is used to trigger the operation of a more expensive sensor (e.g., GPS or microphone). algorithms to virtually reorient a disoriented accelerometer along a canonical set of axes and then use simple threshold-based heuristics to detect bumps and potholes, and braking