Congratulations & thanks to Jeff G & Katie for all of their work!!

Read the full article here.

Article in Nature News by Roberta Kwok

Far from being just an accessory, mobile phones are starting to be used to collect data in an increasing number of disciplines.

Read the full article here.

1. Will it be as accurate as devices already carrying GPS?

2. Will programmers find it easy to develop the same applicatins on the “dumb phones” that will use such SIM cards?

Read more here.

“Datasets describing the health status of individuals are important for medical research but must be used cautiously to protect patient privacy. For patient data containing geographical identifiers, the conventional solution is to aggregate the data by large areas. This method often preserves privacy but suffers from substantial information loss, which degrades the quality of subsequent disease mapping or cluster detection studies. Other heuristic methods for de-identifying spatial patient information do not quantify the risk to individual privacy. We develop an optimal method based on linear programming to add noise to individual locations that preserves the distribution of a disease. The method ensures a small, quantitative risk of individual re-identification. Because the amount of noise added is minimal for the desired degree of privacy protection, the de-identified set is ideal for spatial epidemiological studies. We apply the method to patients in New York County, New York, showing that privacy is guaranteed while moving patients 25—150 times less than aggregation by zip code.”

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/46/17608.abstract?etoc

HTC announced a new cell phone, MAX 4, for sale in Russia. that includes a WiMaX interface. This means the phone operating system has three network interfaces to manage: GSM, WiFi, and WiMaX. 

It would be interesting to discover how will the new high bit-rate, and long-range wireless technology affect the phone battery life. Which networking technology will users rely on more, the ubiquitous and power-expensive WiMaX, or the opportunistic and cheap WiFi?

For more information on the phone visit here. ]]> http://urban.cens.ucla.edu/blog/?feed=rss2&p=295 http://urban.cens.ucla.edu/blog/?p=280 http://urban.cens.ucla.edu/blog/?p=280#comments Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:27:44 +0000 urban http://urban.cens.ucla.edu/blog/?p=280 “… now a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests [text message] technology could be used to reduce children’s chances of becoming overweight or obese later in life, by helping them monitor and modify their own behaviors now.”

press release:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081111142602.htm

Link to PDF:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=PdfDownloadURL&_uoikey=B82X5-4TTHS6D-F&_tockey=%23toc%2333021%232008%23999599993%23700838%23FLA%23&_orig=browse&_acct=C000059605&_version=1&_userid=4423&md5=e330deb517c1b312c02b47ea3e651471

http://traffic.berkeley.edu/

What is PEIR?

In a nutshell, PEIR is a way to track how you interact with the environment. You upload GPS data with your mobile phone, and PEIR estimates both how you impact the environment and how the environment impacts you. What is your carbon footprint? How often are you exposed to high levels of pollution? Login to your online personal profile to find out.

See for Yourself

Anyways, I can describe our project all the live long day, but nothing will compare to actually trying it out for yourself, so when you’re at NextFest (because I know you’re coming), come find PEIR and check out our demos. If you can’t make it, don’t worry, you can also take PEIR out for a spin at the website.

UPDATE : 2008.10.03 Read our press release on Business Wire about PEIR at NextFest.