They say every city has a beating heart. If the examination of London's major road arteries by designer Pedro Miguel Cruz is anything to go by, the UK capital is heading for cardiac arrest.
This July, Cruz -- based at the University of Coimbra in Portugal -- took GPS tagging data from 140 vehicles belonging to delivery company eCourier. He then mapped the speed and position of each of them over a 24-hour period to show traffic movement. Shown ABOVE is the snapshot of data monitored at 10am.
In the visualisation, each vehicle leaves a colour trail corresponding to its speed. "Green means 50kph, but most are a yellowish colour meaning the speed is less than 25kph," says Cruz. " The red areas mean the vehicles are at a standstill." The amber glow illustrates that the majority of the city centre is filled with cars travelling at little more than walking speed.
Could it help rethink traffic management? "Yes, it's a good tool to spot problematic areas," says Cruz. "But it's nothing traffic-control companies don't know already"
The team were fascinated to hear about how drug company BAYER have created new device linking up brilliantly yet intuitively with the Nintendo DS.
Called their DIDGET DEVICE, it simply, and brilliantly, encourages children to take their necessary pin-brick blood sugar tests for diabetic children- by then linking it to any Nintendo DS. The more you do this, the more points you receive within the game playing environment of the DS.
Deliciously simple - we would love to see this time of interaction with game based technology in schools. The possibilities are surely endless... !!!! - ONCE AGAIN SIMPLE WINS..!!!
Over the past three weeks we have been investigating with group of 10 year old children the EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER GAMING. They really find it hard to understand where gaming started, and how basic it ALL used to be
Working alongside we have just completed the EVOLUTION OF MARIO. It appears to be the very same iconic character - but is he????
Fortunately we ship products ALL AROUND THE WORLD. We have found over in the USA here is a gps tracking solution which keeps track of shipments enabling customers to see where and when there shipment actually is.
Perhaps more importantly, this creative application of gps tracking is leading to a system whereby parents easily and unobtrusively keep track of their teens when they are on the road, or alternatively helping to have piece of mind with elderly mum.
I was visiting one of our well known LOCAL COUNCILS to see how we could put together a cost efficient way of using technology better in their schools.
As I walked down one of the corridors I was amazed to see a machine which was selling our old favourite - THE FLOPPY DISC - Indeed, I then tried to buy one, but of course the machine only took the old 50 pence piece!!
So ...... no wonder our schools are finding it difficult to harness the power and potential of new technologies
