Ever find yourself running from the law and a bunch of stop-lights get in your way?
Fret not, anti-hero/criminal because researchers at MIT and Princeton have created a new smartphone app that can predict stop signals.
PHOTOS: Sony Tablets & A Tivo Iphone App
Called SignalGuru, the app uses the camera from a dashboard-mounted smartphone to capture images of traffic lights. Once the images are captured, they’re analyzed to detect whether the lights are green, yellow or red and then that data is passed along to other nearby SignalGuru users.
Using the resulting data, the app can relay to a particular driver how quickly he or she will need to drive in order to make the next light. If the next light is already red, the driver can coast up to it slowly instead.
Or opt to walk instead of polluting the environment!
Reports Techland.com:
The researchers tested the app in Singapore, which uses dynamic traffic lights that change based on traffic levels and in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which uses dumb, old timed traffic lights spawned from the loins of none other than Satan himself (I live near Cambridge, believe it or not).
The results, according to MIT:
“By reducing the need to idle and accelerate from a standstill, the system saves gas: In tests conducted in Cambridge, Mass., it helped drivers cut fuel consumption by 20 percent.”
Other uses for the app include gasoline price sharing and parking space availability.
No word on when it will be available. Kinda like those flying cars we’re waiting for!
Read more at Tech Land.
