Microsoft Tackles Traffic Analysis - April 15th, 2008
Last week Microsoft introduced a web-based service backed by a new technology called Clearflow that will deliver driving directions to help users get around traffic jams. A group of researchers in the field of artificial intelligence spent five years locked away in their Microsoft research labs applying techniques of machine learning to the omnipresent problem of traffic snarls. The result of all that work is Clearflow, a system offered free of charge at maps.live.com.
If you pop over there you’re going to be greeted with a map of the United States supplied by Microsoft’s Virtual Earth with major cities highlighted. (We wouldn’t be trying our darnedest to compete with Google, now would we?)
The major menu options are:
- Search the map.
- Get directions.
- Explore.
There are also options for 3D viewing that require installation of a bit of software. Alas, I am a Mac, Firefox-browsing person, so I could not go there.
From the original article in the New York Times that called all this to my attention, the thing that intrigues me most is that the system may not always spit out answers that seem logical to the driver. Any of us who have ever gotten directions online are familiar with that scenario. Rarely do I ever follow such directions exactly, but rather regard the service as a good tool to orient my departure and destination spots in my mind so I can figure out the best way to get there based on my own knowledge of my city and understanding of its traffic patterns.
Clearflow, on the other hand, attempts to analyze those traffic patterns for you and to determine if you’ll actually make better time on a crowded highway than getting off on side streets where movement may be slower. The idea is great, but it remains to be seen whether it works, but moreover whether users will trust it to work.
Posted on April 15th, 2008 by Shorty
Filed under: technology |
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