GLOBAL CHALLENGES

Getting It Done on the Road

Dennis McCafferty | Date: 05-18-10 | Comments

IBM and Stockholm are teaming up to find a better way to get commuters from Point A to B.

What do Swedish taxi cab drivers have to do with reducing global carbon footprint? Apparently, they have a lead role, if a business analytics solution from IBM takes off.

IBM has deployed its InfoSphere Streams software solution in Stockholm as part of a research project with KTH-Royal Institute of Technology there. The project looks to use the analytics tool to help alleviate traffic in the city. It has resulted in IBM getting real-time movement-pattern information from GPS devices on nearly 1,500 taxi cabs in the city, with plans to expand this monitoring to delivery trucks, traffic sensors and transit systems. The Streams solution will even take data from pollution monitors and weather tracking resources to pinpoint better solutions to traffic management.

The goal is to give local residents better information to make better decisions. After all, half of the reason why we end up in traffic is because we simply don't know the commuting mess that awaits us on the road ahead. With Streams, residents can send to the system their location and desired destination. The solution then processes real-time traffic, rail and weather information to provide optimal travel suggestions by car and public transportation. Reduced time in traffic isn't just a great source of convenience for the commuter�it greatly cuts down on emissions.

For the past year, IBM has worked with the city of Stockholm to monitor traffic flow during peak hours. The citizens of Stockholm are already seeing results from the congestion management system: Traffic in this Swedish capital has been reduced by 20 percent. Travel times are being cut in half. Emissions are down by 10 percent.

�We are just beginning to learn what is possible with IBM streaming analytics,� says Gunnar S�derholm, head of Environmental Administration for the city of Stockholm. �We are excited to investigate smarter transportation solutions to better manage our roadways and public transportation systems and help commuters get to their destination the quickest way possible.�

IBM is now expanding the tool, with the potential to touch upon nearly all pockets of science and society. It's making continued improvements in the software that can enhance processing speeds up to three times faster. Such improvements enable IBM to analyze what it calls �data in motion� and allow organizations to better understand and more rapidly predict future behavior. Among questions the software can help resolve: Where and when will a particular crime occur? What is the likelihood of a heart attack during surgery? What kind of vehicle part is most likely to fail?

�Less than a year after it was unveiled, our stream-computing technology is experiencing rapid growth and adoption in the marketplace,� states Arvind Krishna, general manager of IBM Information Management. �Organizations of all types are turning to IBM streaming computing to gain instant insight from their data.�