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You have to learn to let go. The idea that books, magazines, databases or any form of information source can and should be kept for perpetuity is laughable. Items in a library need to be weeded and space is the major reason why. I know all of you want to keep your precious books, and I do to. But who’s going to pay for it, you?... — the other me

Library Protesters to Ohio State U.: Digital's OK, but Save Our Books!

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November 21, 2008

With Cellphones, Saving the Planet One Step at a Time

What is it with the way that real-time measurement affects our personal choices — particularly with regard to environmental issues? Students who have energy-usage monitors in their residence halls, for example, end up expending less energy than their counterparts without such visual aids. (A particularly colorful monitor featured a drowning polar bear.)

Now researchers at the University of Washington have come up with another monitor that they hope will play a part in saving the planet. It’s a monitor for cellphones, and it can determine whether its user is walking or running, or riding in a car, train, or bus. The program uses cellphone-tower signals to tell if the phone’s owner is riding in a vehicle, and it then presents the person with choices for modes of transit (suggesting cars or trains, for example) after the ride is over. The researchers hope the program will eventually be able to sense movement to determine the mode of transit automatically.

As the user makes “green” transit choices, leaves grow on a tree on the display. (Saving the planet just isn’t enough reward, I guess.)

“The last 30 years of personal computing has been in support of people sitting at their desks,” said James Landay, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at Washington, “but the next wave will be these little computers that are with us all the time and have an understanding of our context in the physical world.” —Scott Carlson

Comments

1. It’s not available on the iTunes Store, it’s just a UW research project.

   — Bill Sodeman    Nov 21, 05:39 PM    #

2. Saving the planet, egad. Is this the 1980s?

   The late Michael Crichton is rolling in his grave.

   — jk    Nov 21, 11:25 PM    #

3. Yeah — how uncool is it to save the planet. I can’t support that.

   — A Blue Dude    Nov 23, 09:21 AM    #

4. I will have NO cell phone if the only alternative is a cell phone that thinks it works for the Gestapo.

   — Regnat Populus    Nov 24, 08:26 AM    #

5. yuck. more spy ware. sounds like a waste of money, too. the application sounds ridiculous (unless the application is really spying).

   — faer    Nov 26, 05:45 PM    #

Commenting is closed for this article.

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