Android smart phone based participatory sensing for smart transportation

• Main Author: Yee, William Wee Liang.
• Other Authors: School of Computer Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51973
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The importance of predicting accurate bus arrival time and obtaining real-time traffic information has been a highly regarded topic of interest in Singapore. With highly accurate prediction, little or no time is wasted waiting for buses or getting stuck in traffic jams. However, the current method of prediction is not at 100% accuracy rate due to the occasional multifunctioning and ineffectiveness of Global Positioning System (GPS) device installed in every public bus. Also, the method of traffic monitoring currently is using expensive equipment such as camera and sensors which are only able to monitor a small area. Thus, the project is to apply the concept that was written and published in the “How Long to Wait: Predicting Bus Arrival Time with Mobile Phone based Participatory Sensing” paper into an application [4, 30]. This method does not require expensive equipment and only utilise frequency and cellular sensing of mobile smartphones that use the participation of population. In the first part of this project, the focus was on the developing of an application that is able to detect EZ-Link ‘beep’ sound, cellular tower and do data collection. For the purpose of development, Android smartphone microphone recording, frequency extraction and cellular sensing was studied and applied. After applying the techniques to perform sensing, the sensing codes are integrated into the application algorithm to perform specific condition data collection task. This application and procedure is also designed with power consumption in mind so that battery will not be drain easily. The results of the detection are shown in the form of charts for demonstrating purpose. To add on to the functionality of being able to monitor real time traffic condition, the algorithm was altered. This was made the extension of this FYP project where a user application was built to collect data at real time on buses and this data will be transmitted to the server to enable real time traffic conditions to be calculated at every part of Singapore. This application was built with all the requirements that a user application will need such as friendly user interface and basic user function. The basic service provided in this application is the providing of bus prediction time from bus companies.