Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa traffic make it real

Wesley money is not a problem where developement is concerned. From the threads i can see that there is a real need. Furthermore lots of cars are being imported with GIS systems that cease to function once they land and the public would appreciate such a solution. I suggest that we meet on the side during the next skunkworks forum to escalate the issue, i am willing to volunteer my expertise in project maanagement at no cost :). Gakuru you should also be there to highlight the element of public private partnerships which you are good at, this project can be real sooner than we imagine. Any Skunk to finance? (Skunk mogul) On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 5:04 PM, Peter Karunyu <pkarunyu@gmail.com> wrote:
I think what wesley is describing is the "traffic ripple effect" Tom Cruise mentioned in MI3 (at the party when the movie has started :-) The gist of the theory being that the behavior of a traffic cop at the Nyayo roundabout on Msa rd will have a ripple effect all the way to the westlands roundabout. How true that is, I don't really know.
Thinking out of the box here, do we really need to see video or pictures of traffic jam? I am thinking, what a motorist needs to know more is "how fast is traffic moving", this implies speed of vehicles past a given check point. This then invalidates the need for cameras AND the KShs. 40k per month.
If this be true, the question becomes; how can we measure the speed at which vehicles are moving past the nyayo stadium roundabout? A low figure indicates heavy jam etc. Can we stick a GPRS/GSM capable motion detector under the fly over? Would it work?
On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:59 PM, jude mwenda <judemwenda@gmail.com> wrote:
Exactly Wesley, i stummbled upon this some time back http://www.njstateatlas.com/traffic/
Challenge is providing geo-information to Mobile phone users... considering the fact that majority of people in Kenya do not have phones with GPS functionality. A question that was raised at wherecampafrica was how do you provide geo info to people with such phones, considering their location. Phares talked about cell tower triangulation.. This is dependent on mobile phone companies, is there a way other than this. Any ideas?
2009/4/7 Christopher Kiagiri <ck@google.com>
I live in South C and as long as I leave home *after* 8:15 a.m. I usually get to the office in Westlands within 45 minutes.
However, if you have to get to work by 8:00 a.m. then you'd better be on the road before 6:30 a.m. as Wesley says. :)
On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 2:37 AM, wesley kiriinya <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com>wrote:
This reminds me of something I said back in Uni during lunch time with two of my friends (yes, it important for you to know the setting 8~)). Once one hears there is traffic on Uhuru Highway what else would you like to know? I believe Uhuru highway is the bottle neck of Nairobi.
Take a case: South C: Vehicles in Mombasa Rd can't join Uhuru highway fast enough so a long jam till Zain results. Motorists detour through South C and thus there is jam between South C and West where all Mombasa Rd and South C ppl are trying to escape. They finally meet Langata Rd and guess where Langata Rd. goes ...
*By the way it is faster to walk from South C to CBD than to take a vehicle*. Walking will take about 40 minutes max while driving will take about 1 hour, unless one leaves at about 6.30am.
o_O?
--- On *Tue, 4/7/09, Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com>* wrote:
From: Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa traffic To: "Skunkworks forum" <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 12:04 PM
i'm thinking more in the lines of doing a traffic density google maps mashup. Problem is that the best source of such data would be telcos - assuming that majority of guys stuck in jam have phones. But honestly I would pay to get a near realtime map of where traffic is in nairobi on my phone so that i can choose the best route to go.
On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 11:58 AM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com<http://us.mc347.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=pkariuki@gmail.com>
wrote:
I was involved in scoping for such a project, problem is budjet. You need a 1mbps link between cameras, and service providers charge 40,000 KES monthly per 1mb link, local loop. They have an advertising deal with the Radio Stations, hence they are not charged. Further to this, the CCN was not of too much use getting approval from, along with suspicious building managers. That's where I left the situation at, as of Nov 2008, don't know if progress has been made though....
On 4/7/09, wesley kiriinya <kiriinya2000@yahoo.com<http://us.mc347.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=kiriinya2000@yahoo.com>> wrote:
I believe we can develop somthing like this. Problem is funding. If we had an organized transport/Nairobi development/... ministry or whoever is in charge then funding will not be an issue. After all such a project benefits everyone.
With the city wired up with fibre optic, the live cameras would give good video feed.
O_O
--- On *Tue, 4/7/09, Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com<http://us.mc347.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=jmugambi@gmail.com> >* wrote:
From: Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com<http://us.mc347.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=jmugambi@gmail.com> > Subject: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa traffic To: "Skunkworks forum" <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke<http://us.mc347.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> > Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 10:12 AM
What would it take to come up with this?
-- Josiah Mugambi +254 738 504418
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Again, as mentioned in the 'tom cruise' anectode, the traffic in kenya heavily depends on the cop(s) at the round about.. which could cause a misjudgement, because the cop could discriminate againist 1) a low priority road 2) or a road without much traffic 3) in favor of the high priority road 4) or a road with much traffic If you have motion/speed detectors, it could give you a false good/positive reading on numbers 3 and 4 and bad/negative reading on the less congested numbers 1 and 2. Because at the time of reading, 3 and 4 would be moving, and 1 and 2 would be still. I dont know if you get the points illustrated ?? Anyway, taking your idea-- i believe the best way would be to have sensors or detectors at various junctures in the road upto may be 500 metres from a junction or round abound,, These sensors would relay to a remote system the extent or how far back the vehicles are in a particular road. This of course would be based on the frequency of movement [depending on the type of sensors]. The normal 'light' sensors for example would take the average time it takes for them to 'see' each other across the road. Weight sensors would be another option. To illustrate 10 50 60 70 80 90 100 etc | | | | | | | A B C D E F G If sensors read stationary vehicles upto point B for example, but none beyound e.g 50 meters, then that is a good sign. If sensors pick stationary vehicles at point G, then dont go near that road... just as an example. This information from the sensors would be presented to a user either as an sms or in a simple graphical form. For example, i send to a special 4 digit number 'uhuru highway' and i receive a simple graph like this [based on a scale] :- ================ red or worstest [:-)] ============ yellow or bad ======= grey or acceptable === white or [use this one] The same can be put in a better format [complete with map and color] on a high end user phone - but this time, once can get a larger view of nairobi roads with these color codes interpreted by legends coloring different roads. If you see a road with red on your map, stay away. This of course would represent live feed from the sensors, to the system to your phone map via gsm/gprs or 3G. I think this would be another 'cheaper' way -- but the problem again is passing the bureaucracy and getting a budget :-) !!

Reminder on this topic following the ICT board directive for a collaborative skunk project ... there is a meeting today at teleposta on 4th floor at 6 pm ?? May be there could be a short discussion after the meeting ??

Please update us all on the progress of this discussion. I work far away from CBD and thus cant attend any meetings on a weekday. On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 1:53 PM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
Reminder on this topic following the ICT board directive for a collaborative skunk project ... there is a meeting today at teleposta on 4th floor at 6 pm ??
May be there could be a short discussion after the meeting ??
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Ndung'u and Peter Sorry i had to dash out of the meeting to meet a client, did you discuss the project? please keep me updated. Alex, fantastic presentation Regards On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 7:01 PM, Peter Karunyu <pkarunyu@gmail.com> wrote:
Please update us all on the progress of this discussion. I work far away from CBD and thus cant attend any meetings on a weekday.
On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 1:53 PM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
Reminder on this topic following the ICT board directive for a collaborative skunk project ... there is a meeting today at teleposta on 4th floor at 6 pm ??
May be there could be a short discussion after the meeting ??
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No we didnt -- i also checked in and left immediately. There was a slight problem with an ubuntu based cyber one of my colleagues had built last week so had to help him out... Anyway, i was thinking of hiring or getting some engineering students to begin the ground work of construction or making the small model to simulate 4 roads meeting a round about... This will just be the very basic beginning, after which we can bounce our ideas on how to best "sense" the traffic. I am thinking that is we are to do this we had better have a small model to build our psyche instead of imagining,,, I will give an update on this when we next meet.

Nice progress, I've been rather silent having started the whole thread. Would be interesting to see how this would work out. Maybe if someone has a LARGE house complete with reasonably sized paths, one can actually try out/simulate this using actual vehicles. On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 4:44 PM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
No we didnt -- i also checked in and left immediately. There was a slight problem with an ubuntu based cyber one of my colleagues had built last week so had to help him out...
Anyway, i was thinking of hiring or getting some engineering students to begin the ground work of construction or making the small model to simulate 4 roads meeting a round about...
This will just be the very basic beginning, after which we can bounce our ideas on how to best "sense" the traffic. I am thinking that is we are to do this we had better have a small model to build our psyche instead of imagining,,,
I will give an update on this when we next meet.
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actual vehicles ????? it is a good idea, but we will give it a shot on the second phase,, a small model costs less to implement,, blowing it up will be a duplicate [with some problems of cos] w/r

Even before building scale models, why not do implement some mathematical models in software. its cheaper, costs nothing (aside from brain power and time) and algorithms can be refined to factor in dynamics like weather, accidents, probability that many people using the service will cause the optimized route to actually be slower, etc. Let's throw some brains at the problem before throwing money. On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 5:31 PM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
actual vehicles ?????
it is a good idea, but we will give it a shot on the second phase,, a small model costs less to implement,, blowing it up will be a duplicate [with some problems of cos]
w/r
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Nice ideas guys, dont you think we should meet up and pursue all the options being put forth, we can meet at any of our colleagues offices or in a restaurant, the vote is yours Regards On 4/15/09, Rad! <conradakunga@gmail.com> wrote:
Even before building scale models, why not do implement some mathematical models in software. its cheaper, costs nothing (aside from brain power and time) and algorithms can be refined to factor in dynamics like weather, accidents, probability that many people using the service will cause the optimized route to actually be slower, etc. Let's throw some brains at the problem before throwing money.
On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 5:31 PM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
actual vehicles ?????
it is a good idea, but we will give it a shot on the second phase,, a small model costs less to implement,, blowing it up will be a duplicate [with some problems of cos]
w/r
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Good idea of the mathematical model ;; my thinking was from an electrical engineering point of view :-) -- build the circuits/sensors,, find a way to feed them into a computer/system.. [this will take some time] Take the data,, and begin working on the data... i.e once you can collect the data then software comes in . That was the thinking. Or am i putting the cart infront of the cow ?? Or is it an ox ??

I agree with Rad! (nice name), building a software based simulation app offers more flexibility as the variables affecting traffic flow can be changed to reflect a wide variety of simulations. Ndungu, are you saying that its possible to "build" the circuits and sensors? No one out there has done it yet? I Googled for "traffic simulation software<http://www.google.co.ke/search?q=traffic+simulation+software&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a>" and came up with some interesting info, check it out. Barrack, if the meeting was on a weekend, that'ld be real nice. On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 10:55 AM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
Good idea of the mathematical model ;; my thinking was from an electrical engineering point of view :-) -- build the circuits/sensors,, find a way to feed them into a computer/system.. [this will take some time]
Take the data,, and begin working on the data... i.e once you can collect the data then software comes in . That was the thinking.
Or am i putting the cart infront of the cow ?? Or is it an ox ??
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I like this one http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/default.htm . This looks at the presentation end of the whole project, i guess... Seems like the GIS guys have what we are thinking about - that is actually the final vision of how this thing may be presented to gprs capable phones... Our work will be to find a way to collect real time data from these roads, find a way to send them remotely and then present them like so... The simulation thing looks good,,, next step in the test would be to collect data from the simulation and extract it to the remote system for distribution.

looks interesting - (except for the pricing - http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/Pricing.htm ) <http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/Pricing.htm> Though if it is a large org doing this, that wouldn't be a problem. On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 11:15 AM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
I like this one http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/default.htm . This looks at the presentation end of the whole project, i guess...
Seems like the GIS guys have what we are thinking about - that is actually the final vision of how this thing may be presented to gprs capable phones... Our work will be to find a way to collect real time data from these roads, find a way to send them remotely and then present them like so...
The simulation thing looks good,,, next step in the test would be to collect data from the simulation and extract it to the remote system for distribution.
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Been looking at this: http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/TrafficControl.htm, and 3 things came to mind. 1) Google maps 2) my favorite arcade game of all time PACMAN 3) OOP With OOP, assuming you crafted a base object TCar with basic characteristics of a "Kenyan" motogari from which one could derive TBus, TLorry, TGistyCar, TRecklessCar, etc. with specific respective characteristics. Using the GMap of nairobi, as our playing field and instances of TCar and its descendants as our pacman and the gobblers, we could effectively create a simulator. For instance, a simulation of the last friday of the month, we could create 100000 instances of TCar descendants to simulate increased traffic. -- Lidede A. Eugene CTO, Synergy Systems Limited 020 2113163 / 22240434 ____________________________________________________________________ http://live.mystocks.co.ke/ | Stay ahead of the price carnage at NSE On Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:22:25 +0300, Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com> wrote:
looks interesting - (except for the pricing - http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/Pricing.htm ) <http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/Pricing.htm> Though if it is a large org doing this, that wouldn't be a problem. On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 11:15 AM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com>wrote:
I like this one http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/default.htm . This looks at the presentation end of the whole project, i guess...
Seems like the GIS guys have what we are thinking about - that is actually the final vision of how this thing may be presented to gprs capable phones... Our work will be to find a way to collect real time data from these roads, find a way to send them remotely and then present them like so...
The simulation thing looks good,,, next step in the test would be to collect data from the simulation and extract it to the remote system for distribution.
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Isn't this supposed to be a locally built system, this transmodeler certainly isnt From: skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke [mailto:skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke] On Behalf Of ndungu stephen Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 11:16 AM To: Skunkworks forum Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa traffic makeit real I like this one http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/default.htm . This looks at the presentation end of the whole project, i guess... Seems like the GIS guys have what we are thinking about - that is actually the final vision of how this thing may be presented to gprs capable phones... Our work will be to find a way to collect real time data from these roads, find a way to send them remotely and then present them like so... The simulation thing looks good,,, next step in the test would be to collect data from the simulation and extract it to the remote system for distribution.

It doesn't have to, if there is a better open source/affordable solution out there, there is no sense in re-inventing the wheel. Consequently, if the sensors we need are already made and work fine and are affordable, then I see no need in making new ones from scratch, unless maybe there is good reason to. On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Steve Obbayi <steve@sobbayi.com> wrote:
Isn’t this supposed to be a locally built system, this transmodeler certainly isnt
*From:* skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke [mailto: skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke] *On Behalf Of *ndungu stephen *Sent:* Thursday, April 16, 2009 11:16 AM *To:* Skunkworks forum *Subject:* Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa traffic makeit real
I like this one http://www.caliper.com/transmodeler/default.htm . This looks at the presentation end of the whole project, i guess...
Seems like the GIS guys have what we are thinking about - that is actually the final vision of how this thing may be presented to gprs capable phones... Our work will be to find a way to collect real time data from these roads, find a way to send them remotely and then present them like so...
The simulation thing looks good,,, next step in the test would be to collect data from the simulation and extract it to the remote system for distribution.
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I worked with some GIS maps a few years ago on a pet project,, it was a way to project them on a website...It looked something like that, except there were no cars zooming past,, just rivers and roads. One can draw maps using GIS [a heinous task considering the fact that the GIS software works on zoom which can affect the scale once you host it on a webpage] Secondly, the heavy graphics were abit slow even when hosted locally,, so refreshing them is another hurdle to jump... However,, with animations and GIFs, i believe this can be pulled off ??

It is a wrong approach to place an entire map o Nairobi or sorts. Now better map data can be gotten from a few sources like map source (garmin), the google mapmaker data is now available for kenya.. these are much lighter. or even better, simply plot a small scale map for the relevant roads for the simulation in OpenGL using at most 2 colors for the surface plane. This approach will get you huge surfaces for something like 10kb or much lesssince this will be a vector map. Unless the simulation will be rendered into an mpeg4 video clip. This first step will enable us to have a 2D areal map plane of just the relevant seciton to be used to test purposes. Another way could be to go with the entire city but only render certain vectors that are relevant to the simulation. Using a 3D Graphics Engine like Ogre and implementing it with bullet physics libraries which I have had some time experimenting with, its only a couple days work at most to come up with a simulation that supports collision detection and some AI (bullet physics libraries has algorithms that handle collision detection and other natural body behaviours with remarkable realistic behaviour. Why AI? Well because of the task of simulating the driving habits on our roads. The system has to ignore scenerios like drivers totally ignoring red lights and obeying traffic cop (to some extent), switching lanes on round abouts (r braking other road rules), partial driving on the curb, cops must be placed on some round abouts etc. If you are ambitious enough accidents as well as human crossing of roads, mkokoteni blah blah can be factored in. The Ai logic isnt as complex as it souds. Then finally the generation and destruction of instances or model cars when they enter and leave the plane of view. Why destroy cars after they leave the plane? This is just a push in the right direction so this thing can get started otherwise it will be discussed for eternity _____ From: skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke [mailto:skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke] On Behalf Of ndungu stephen Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:51 PM To: Skunkworks forum Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa trafficmakeit real I worked with some GIS maps a few years ago on a pet project,, it was a way to project them on a website...It looked something like that, except there were no cars zooming past,, just rivers and roads. One can draw maps using GIS [a heinous task considering the fact that the GIS software works on zoom which can affect the scale once you host it on a webpage] Secondly, the heavy graphics were abit slow even when hosted locally,, so refreshing them is another hurdle to jump... However,, with animations and GIFs, i believe this can be pulled off ??

Obbayi, impressive ideas! On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 8:36 AM, Steve Obbayi <steve@sobbayi.com> wrote:
It is a wrong approach to place an entire map o Nairobi or sorts. Now better map data can be gotten from a few sources like map source (garmin), the google mapmaker data is now available for kenya.. these are much lighter… or even better, simply plot a small scale map for the relevant roads for the simulation in OpenGL using at most 2 colors for the surface plane. This approach will get you huge surfaces for something like 10kb or much lesssince this will be a vector map. Unless the simulation will be rendered into an mpeg4 video clip.
This first step will enable us to have a 2D areal map plane of just the relevant seciton to be used to test purposes.
Another way could be to go with the entire city but only render certain vectors that are relevant to the simulation.
Using a 3D Graphics Engine like Ogre and implementing it with bullet physics libraries which I have had some time experimenting with, its only a couple days work at most to come up with a simulation that supports collision detection and some AI (bullet physics libraries has algorithms that handle collision detection and other natural body behaviours with remarkable realistic behaviour.
Why AI? Well because of the task of simulating the driving habits on our roads. The system has to ignore scenerios like drivers totally ignoring red lights and obeying traffic cop (to some extent), switching lanes on round abouts (r braking other road rules), partial driving on the curb, cops must be placed on some round abouts etc.
If you are ambitious enough accidents as well as human crossing of roads, mkokoteni blah blah can be factored in.
The Ai logic isnt as complex as it souds.
Then finally the generation and destruction of instances or model cars when they enter and leave the plane of view. Why destroy cars after they leave the plane?
This is just a push in the right direction so this thing can get started otherwise it will be discussed for eternity
------------------------------
*From:* skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke [mailto: skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke] *On Behalf Of *ndungu stephen *Sent:* Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:51 PM *To:* Skunkworks forum *Subject:* Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa trafficmakeit real
I worked with some GIS maps a few years ago on a pet project,, it was a way to project them on a website...It looked something like that, except there were no cars zooming past,, just rivers and roads.
One can draw maps using GIS [a heinous task considering the fact that the GIS software works on zoom which can affect the scale once you host it on a webpage] Secondly, the heavy graphics were abit slow even when hosted locally,, so refreshing them is another hurdle to jump...
However,, with animations and GIFs, i believe this can be pulled off ??
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Hi, Just read this story on BDAfrica of a tool used to measure the impact of outdoor ads by monitoring human traffic around them. http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14112&Item... Not too far off from what we have in mind. On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 9:45 AM, Peter Karunyu <pkarunyu@gmail.com> wrote:
Obbayi, impressive ideas!
On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 8:36 AM, Steve Obbayi <steve@sobbayi.com> wrote:
It is a wrong approach to place an entire map o Nairobi or sorts. Now better map data can be gotten from a few sources like map source (garmin), the google mapmaker data is now available for kenya.. these are much lighter… or even better, simply plot a small scale map for the relevant roads for the simulation in OpenGL using at most 2 colors for the surface plane. This approach will get you huge surfaces for something like 10kb or much lesssince this will be a vector map. Unless the simulation will be rendered into an mpeg4 video clip.
This first step will enable us to have a 2D areal map plane of just the relevant seciton to be used to test purposes.
Another way could be to go with the entire city but only render certain vectors that are relevant to the simulation.
Using a 3D Graphics Engine like Ogre and implementing it with bullet physics libraries which I have had some time experimenting with, its only a couple days work at most to come up with a simulation that supports collision detection and some AI (bullet physics libraries has algorithms that handle collision detection and other natural body behaviours with remarkable realistic behaviour.
Why AI? Well because of the task of simulating the driving habits on our roads. The system has to ignore scenerios like drivers totally ignoring red lights and obeying traffic cop (to some extent), switching lanes on round abouts (r braking other road rules), partial driving on the curb, cops must be placed on some round abouts etc.
If you are ambitious enough accidents as well as human crossing of roads, mkokoteni blah blah can be factored in.
The Ai logic isnt as complex as it souds.
Then finally the generation and destruction of instances or model cars when they enter and leave the plane of view. Why destroy cars after they leave the plane?
This is just a push in the right direction so this thing can get started otherwise it will be discussed for eternity
------------------------------
*From:* skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke [mailto: skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke] *On Behalf Of *ndungu stephen *Sent:* Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:51 PM *To:* Skunkworks forum *Subject:* Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa trafficmakeit real
I worked with some GIS maps a few years ago on a pet project,, it was a way to project them on a website...It looked something like that, except there were no cars zooming past,, just rivers and roads.
One can draw maps using GIS [a heinous task considering the fact that the GIS software works on zoom which can affect the scale once you host it on a webpage] Secondly, the heavy graphics were abit slow even when hosted locally,, so refreshing them is another hurdle to jump...
However,, with animations and GIFs, i believe this can be pulled off ??
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks Other services @ http://my.co.ke Other lists ------------- Skunkworks announce: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce Science - http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science kazi - http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general
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-- Josiah Mugambi +254 738 504418 http://blog.josiahmugambi.com SK Classifeds... Visit stockskenya.co.ke for more info.

That is a very good idea steve,, the AI thing sounds interesting. I think that we should all meet and discuss this to elect the way forward [for those interested]. I would propose that we all meet next Tuesday at the skunk venue meeting after the actual meeting is confirmed. w/r

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Peter Karunyu <pkarunyu@gmail.com> wrote:
It doesn't have to, if there is a better open source/affordable solution out there, there is no sense in re-inventing the wheel. Consequently, if the sensors we need are already made and work fine and are affordable, then I see no need in making new ones from scratch, unless maybe there is good reason to.
Is the traffic problem really that of too many cars ... or too many bad drivers ? I don't think the problem is because of too many cars -- perhaps it is because too many people are able to get a license without knowing how to drive.

A computer simulation will certainly be easier and much more interesting before a mathematical model is reached. The simulation will feed off data collected - using the sensors etc. ________________________________ From: ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com> To: Skunkworks forum <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:55:39 AM Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa traffic make it real Good idea of the mathematical model ;; my thinking was from an electrical engineering point of view :-) -- build the circuits/sensors,, find a way to feed them into a computer/system.. [this will take some time] Take the data,, and begin working on the data... i.e once you can collect the data then software comes in . That was the thinking. Or am i putting the cart infront of the cow ?? Or

Hey i am a specialist in data aquisation system and i have designed a data aquisation system including hardware which can be used 4 mathematical modeling, simulation as wel as control actuators remotely. I think it will be very useful in this problem. On 4/16/09, Bernard Owuor <b_owuor@yahoo.com> wrote:
A computer simulation will certainly be easier and much more interesting before a mathematical model is reached. The simulation will feed off data collected - using the sensors etc.
________________________________ From: ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com> To: Skunkworks forum <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 12:55:39 AM Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] traffic congestion: solutions to hepa traffic make it real
Good idea of the mathematical model ;; my thinking was from an electrical engineering point of view :-) -- build the circuits/sensors,, find a way to feed them into a computer/system.. [this will take some time]
Take the data,, and begin working on the data... i.e once you can collect the data then software comes in . That was the thinking.
Or am i putting the cart infront of the cow ?? Or

@ Simon Please let us meet tomoro when the venue is confirmed. w/r
participants (10)
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ashok+skunkworks@parliaments.info
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Barrack Otieno
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Bernard Owuor
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Eugene Lidede (Synergy)
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Josiah Mugambi
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ndungu stephen
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Peter Karunyu
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Rad!
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simon muthike
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Steve Obbayi