(Lightly edited for readability)
Speakers: Vivek Kant, Ashish Verma, Subhra Priyadarshini
00:01 Support announcement: This episode is produced with support from DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance.
00:07 Subhra Priyadarshini: Hello and welcome to the Nature India podcast. I am your host Subhra Priyadarshini.
What makes our smartphones smarter?
In this podcast series “Our Mobile World”, we are trying to figure out how mobile phones are changing the way science and research is done. Today’s episode will focus on sensors, yes, the components that make our smartphones smarter.
Sensors are the superpowers of our phones. Modern smartphones have several kinds of sensors -- accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, microphones, and cameras.
The rapid acceptance of mobile phones and their ubiquity has significantly reflected upon intelligent transport systems like traffic management, driver information, navigation information, telematics and so on. There are many apps for destination navigation that we all use. These apps can track location in real-time, guide to destinations, display maps, vehicle health and even update about real-time traffic conditions in cities.
Let us begin the episode today with Vivek Kant, an associate professor at IIT Kanpur, who works on human-centred design, and digitalization and supports humans in complex systems in transportation. He talks about the relationship between mobile phones and the trucking industry.
01:57 Vivek Kant: I believe that mobile phones are really transforming India, in a very subtle manner, but a very powerful manner. Meaning, people who use mobile phones have now access to many different ways of interaction, which was not present earlier. And the project we did was on the trucking industry and truck drivers in Tamil Nadu, and how low literate truck drivers as well as truck owners are, or could, leverage mobile phones and the use of mobile phones for understanding maintenance. So the whole idea in the trucking industry is that sensors are becoming cheap. And people researchers, and technologists are putting sensors into everything. So that is generating a lot of data, which is very helpful for engineers and technologists in general, specifically with the focus on Industry 4.0.
02:49 Subhra Priyadarshini: Right, So then how does this data help in information design or a human-centered design?
02:58 Vivek Kant: Sensors are giving a lot of data and that data can be used for information and how we can design that information to empower human beings, in this case, truck drivers and truck owners. We looked at same Salem, Tamil Nadu. In the trucking industry, a large segment is actually run by truck owners who own less than five trucks. Now, what happens is that one when something breaks down in that truck, or maybe the driver feels that there is some kind of a sound or some some problem, he informs the truck owner and the truck owner then sends the truck to his or her (and most in most cases, it's his, not her because of the way the whole segment is), trusted repair people and the mechanics will go ahead and then make a judgement whether they can repair it or not. Or if the issue is really complicated, they'll send it to this OEM (original equipment manager) garages. So this is how the maintenance industry works over there. And many parts of India too. How can we bring in some kind of digitalization in this and using digitalization how can we empower truck owners? So we know that sensors are already being put into the engines. So a lot of data is already being generated by them. OEMs use that sensor data to understand the engine health.
04:22 Subhra Priyadarshini: Interesting. So then these data updates reach the drivers through mobile apps?
04:29 Vivek Kant: All truck owners have mobile phones, even if they are low-literate, they still know how to operate their mobile phones. Now, how can we get information into the mobile phone and present it in a manner which is meaningful for them? So earlier, ideally, if there was no mobile phone, and still I have sensors, so they would then take the trucks to the OEMs. And the OEM maintenance guys would then take out the data from the sensors in the truck into their computers. But now we have a low cost computing device in the hands of the end user. Right. So this changes the dynamics quite a bit. So it is at least helping me in trying to understand what the current status of the health of my truck is.
05:16 Subhra Priyadarshini: So how would that play out in practical terms?
05:21 Vivek Kant: Meaning that let's say the last time I got my oil change was maybe two months back. Now, typically, the driver keeps track of this. Also, let's say the last time I got my truck maintained or some part replaced was some time back. So I have to keep a lot of this in my memory. Now what I am doing is, I am putting all of this memory externally into the mobile phone and into some way, which supports the everyday narrative of the trucking business. Because that's where the real impact is coming, of using information designed from the mobile phone. If there was no mobile phone, then people would have resorted to other information devices. But other information devices have not entered into the lives of everyday Indians in the same manner as mobile phones have done. So if India was to think about human centered digitalization very strongly, because what we've done is we've leapfrogged into an era of mobile phones, bypassing the whole computer revolution altogether.
06:22 Subhra Priyadarshini: Phones are an integral part of the mobility and transport system, like Vivek mentions. When on the road, we all are reliant on mobile phones to navigate our way to our destinations. But is there a way that the data generated by our phone navigation use can feed into research? Ashish Verma, a professor of transportation systems engineering at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, points them out to us.
06:49 Ashish Verma: Yeah, the most basic and obvious thing one can think about is the navigation that all of us do everyday, you know, when we are going out. When we are trying to reach a destination, the first thing we do is we open mobile phone and try to navigate, find out the shortest route and start the navigator. So, that you can know what path, where you have to turn, where you have to you know which road to take and so on. So, that has become an integral part which has happened because of this whole integration of GIS, GPS technology within mobile phone system. Along with that, you know from research that we do in transportation systems engineering, mobile phones have become a way to collect not just data, but also information and also use it in many ways for the analysis works. For example, the GPS and the tracking that grid provides can actually be extremely useful in understanding what route people are taking, what more people are taking to travel, what are their origin destination, how much is their travel time and so on, so forth.
08:07 Subhra Priyadarshini: And does this traffic or navigation data come in handy to address other questions, for instance road infrastructure?
08:16 Ashish Verma: There are motion sensors in the mobile phone, which can also give you information about the state of infrastructure, the condition of traffic and congestion and so on. For example, pothole is a big problem in our country on Indian roads in many urban areas, and with motion sensors, you can actually get the the unevenness of the road surfaces, there are many solutions, app based solutions focusing on these motion sensors that are available in mobile phone for also, you know, getting the condition of the road infrastructure. So these are few examples.
08:49 Subhra Priyadarshini: Very true, so we can see the navigation, the traffic hotspots, the potholes….
08:55 Ashish Verma: Also see a network effect or a system. So from that point of view, you know, mobile phone comes quite handy for several of our of our data requirements in our research, for example, we do data collection about origin destinations, the routes that they prefer, in different time of the day gives us an understanding of what is the network level and level of service being offered. We also can understand what mode people are traveling for example, if you overlay the trajectory of a specific mobile phone with say the routes of Metro Rail Network are certain real info, if there is a clear overlap of the trajectory with the network or certain routes of metro rail system, we can very well you know, assume with reasonable accuracy that the person will use was using Metro for their, you know, travel and trip purpose.
09:46 Subhra Priyadarshini: And also if a person is not in a vehicle, right? Like they are walking or cycling.
09:53 Ashish Verma: Based on the the speed and the travel time that we can derive from the tracking ability of mobile, we can also you know, assume that if a person has consistently travelled with a speed that falls within walking speeds or cycling speeds, you can also assume that the person was walking or cycling. And likewise, the travel time information would also help us understand the level of traffic condition at different times in different locations and different corridors. since we follow demand centric approaches to problem solving transportation engineering, it really gives us a good insight, which can then lead us to understand where, for example, you know, focused interventions of public transport are required? Or where, for example, cycling paths are missing? Where do we need to improve walking infrastructure? Is there a last mile connectivity issue?
10:48 Subhra Priyadarshini: Just curious, with so much data available, and such rapidly changing technology, how do you see transportation and mobility services evolve in the next few years?
11:00 Ashish Verma: It's an interesting question, you know. The concept of mobility as a service is evolving in different parts of the world, and also being talked about in India, where the idea is that you bring all mobility modes on a single platform, say, through app. A single app that provides mobility as a service opportunity, where a person cannot just find optimum itinerary for their travel from point A to point B, but also would get the optimum use of mode, making the payment for the whole journey. So bringing all modes as a service onto a single platform. And this, and this can be enabled using mobile phones using the apps that you develop on the mobile phones, and, you know, enabling people to make payments, also for their whole journey, and not to, you know, pay every time that you're changing the mode, but you know, pay in one go, Yeah, this is one good direction in which the mobile phone technology may help and shape the changing and evolving mobility system.
12:03 Subhra Priyadarshini: And there is more and more research happening on connected and autonomous vehicles.
12:09 Ashish Verma: Going forward in future, mobile phone technology would be an important way for the vehicles to be connected, and talk to each other and relay information so as to, you know, bring more efficiency in the movement of vehicles, improving the capacity of transport system, and also enhance the safety. Mobile phone is also an excellent way to basically give driver assistance and driving related information. For example, any safety risk that you're facing when driving, you know, could not just be sensed by mobile phone, but it can also be translated or transferred to the driver through mobile phone.
12:46 Subhra Priyadarshini: Smartphones sensors are undoubtedly transforming the scene in transportation through these applications you just heard. Amazing how little we realise all of this when we just open google maps or the satellite navigation systems in our car to reach our destinations.
Hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we did. We will be back soon with another episode of the Series “Mobile World” till then make sure to check out our archives and do share it with your friends and colleagues. Meet you in the next episode.I am Subra Priyadarshini and this is the Nature India Podcast.
13:39 Support announcement: Thanks to the DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance for their support in producing this episode.
Listen to other episodes in this series:
मोबाइल की दुनिया: विज्ञान शिक्षा और संचार हुआ आसान
Our mobile worrld: Tackling e-waste
Our mobile world: Enabling precision agriculture
Our mobile world: Tracking biodiversity
Our mobile world: How mobile phones are helping save the planet
Our mobile world: Healthcare on the go
Our mobile world: How the cell phone is changing science and research
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