University of Washington

Research Highlights (cont'd) UW GRADUATE STUDENT DEVELOPS MOBILE DEVICE-BASED PEDESTRIAN DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM A novel travel data collection system has been developed and presented by Dr. Yegor Malinovskiy, a recent PhD graduate of Professor Yinhai Wang of the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington. This method involves the use of mobile device GPS and short-range communication capabilities to identify unique MAC addresses of Bluetooth or WiFi enabled mobile devices. This app-based technology requires the owner of a mobile device, i.e. the observer, to download an app, which runs continuously in the background to scan for surrounding unique device addresses. Pedestrian travel trajectories and patterns can then be extracted using the system, from the MAC address sightings and their GPS coordinates, providing data not only about the app users but also about all Bluetooth-visible devices incident to them. The greatest advantage of this app-based technology is cost effectiveness. There is no need to install, administer and maintain a network of sensors, which significantly reduces infrastructure costs. This technology is also independent of telephone companies and other data providers, as all data is collected by the users directly. Compared to most location-based services on the market, this invention can provide many benefits to users and service providers. While this app-based sensing technology can automatically obtain location and trajectory information from wireless devices, additional information can also be obtained by analyzing which types of devices prefer to interact, thus allowing one to make plausible guesses about the type of activity the user is engaged in. Multi-target applications that involve multiple users may also be developed using this technology, in which location-based notifications can be sent to users within an area and not just to a single user. The location tracking capability provided by this innovation represents a fundamental component of future location based services. Although the full potential of this innovation may be far on the horizon, the inventors envision applications in the fields of Urban Planning, Retail, Entertainment and Emergency Services. The University of Washington has filed a patent application to protect this technology. Contact: Dr. Yinhai Wang Email: yinhai@uw.edu Visualization of popular pedestrian paths on the UW campus using Bluetooth pedestrian tracking system USING LIDAR TO ASSESS SLOPE FAILURE RISK Unstable slopes, including landslides, rock falls, and debris flows, present significant risk to safety and regional commerce and represent a chronic concern for highway managers. A great deal of expense and difficulty are associated with both monitoring slope stability and allocating funds for maintenance and repair. A team of researchers led by Andrew T. Metzger (UAF) is developing a risk-based tool that can be used to aid in allocating resources for slope stability issues in highway corridors. In this project, LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is used to produce 3D images that enable identifying and remediating hazardous conditions before a failure occurs. This project will help qualify/ quantify the level of risk a rock-slope poses to the highway corridor customers (users) based on the current condition and important metrics of the corridor. The of an unstable highway slope in the Denali National Park area in Alaska was acquired using mobile LIDAR. 22 Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium Contact: Dr. Michael Olsen Email: michael.olsen@oregonstate.edu Image rendering (colored by elevation0 of a 3D point cloud of unstable highway slopes in Glitter Gulch, acquired using mobile LIDAR

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