Gov App Detects Potholes As Your Drive Over Them 181
An anonymous reader writes "The City of Boston has released an app that uses the accelerometer in your smartphone to automatically report bumps in the road as you drive over them. From the article: 'The application relies on two components embedded in iPhones, Android phones, and many other mobile devices: the accelerometer and the Global Positioning System receiver. The accelerometer, which determines the direction and acceleration of a phone’s movement, can be harnessed to identify when a phone resting on a dashboard or in a cupholder in a moving car has hit a bump; the GPS receiver can determine by satellite just where that bump is located.' I am certain that this will not be used to track your movements, unless they are vertical."
Re:They don't have to put the app in your phone (Score:5, Informative)
Not even necessary! Most people in my town report potholes to the municipality, all they need to do is LISTEN and FIX THEM.
Re:swerves? (Score:4, Informative)
It's late, so pardon me taking you TOO seriously, but the phone, in any orientation, knows which way "down" is. See, there's this force called "gravity" which acts exactly like accelerating away from the center of the earth. It's how phones know which way you have 'em oriented. If the measured acceleration sharply lessens then increases then you are dipping into a pothole. If the acceleration is the other way around, you've run over a... speed bump.
If the app's voice recognition software catches you saying "oh shit, do you think anyone saw that" they know to send the police.
Re:They don't have to put the app in your phone (Score:5, Informative)
Yes. www.fixmystreet.com in the UK.
Re:They don't have to put the app in your phone (Score:5, Informative)
As a municipal elected official ...
We fix our streets. The problem is, we have a state highway running through the town (Main Street), and we have a number of county roads, too.
About 90% of the complaints are about the county roads, as there's a stretch of road that was supposed to have been resurfaced 2-3 years ago, and they still haven't done it; they replaced a section out last year (during rush hour), and they're supposed to replace out another section or two this year where the potholes are particularly bad. ... but they're not maintaining their roads, and when we report potholes to them, they take anywhere from a week to a month to do something; in some cases, they keep calling for an address of where "the" pothole is, and we have to explain it's not just one pothole, there's a dozen in less than a block, and when they finally come out, they patch *one* of the holes, so we have to keep calling and pestering them for them to fix one at a time.
And also, if they're in Maryland -- the state last year cut the state funding to municipalities for road maintenance by 90%, but they didn't make the cuts until after the municipalities were required to have passed their budget. (and state police aid was also cut significantly), so it's possible that they just don't have the money to do it.