Tomorrow’s technology for people on the move

BY NIGEL MANDER

Svend Tøfting, who also chairs the steering committee of CITS, is firmly convinced that the mobile phone is a key factor in realising the true potential of ITS.Photo: Lars Horn

INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS: North Denmark region is bidding to become one of the leading ITS regions in Europe by establishing itself as a testbed where all kinds of ITS applications can be evaluated

“Turn right at the junction 50 metres ahead” flashes the message on the movingmap display screen in the car. These days, navigational devices are an increasingly common gadget in automobiles, while along the highways, dynamic signs keep drivers informed with upto-the-minute traffic information. Both are examples of ITS, or intelligent transport systems, which aim to harness the power of information technology to improve utilisation of the transport infrastructure.

But they are only small beginnings in a much more ambitious future for ITS envisioned by Svend Tøfting, chairman of the networking organisation ITSDanmark:

“Today’s navigator devices are standalone systems using the supplier’s own equipment and data. But to deliver the full potential of ITS to the travelling public will require far greater amounts of information than systems like these can handle, and involve extensive cooperation and organisation between legislators, public authorities, infrastructure owners, companies and end users.”

NECESSARY NETWORKING
Cooperation and organisation is exactly what ITSDanmark is about. Based close to the university in Aalborg, northern Jutland, it forms a networking hub in the ITS area for nearly 50 members in Denmark representing businesses, research units and public institutions, and has strong links with both the national government and ERTICO, a European body which represents the interests of national ITS networking agencies. In a European context, ITSDanmark has gained in visibility and profile having succeeded in bringing the 6th European ITS Congress to Aalborg in 2007.

Svend Tøfting is in no doubt about the need for bodies like ITSDanmark in seeking to achieve Denmark’s ITS aspirations:

“A national organisation is necessary because ITS is extremely complex in nature and requires a lot of networked coordination. ITS involves not only complex technology and advanced data management, but also a knowledge of psychology to understand driver mindsets and how things like intelligent speed control in cars may be perceived differently by different driver groups.”

AALBORG’S ADVANTAGE
In January this year, the Danish government was presented with a report from the Infrastructure Commission, which made a key recommendation that ’intelligent technological solutions must ensure optimal utilisation of the infrastructure’. Svend Tøfting is optimistic that this will strengthen the political will for action, and sees that action being coordinated from the recently established Centre for Intelligent Transport Systems (CITS) on the Aalborg University campus.

Aalborg University is a wellsuited location, since it is not only home to the Center for Teleinfrastructure, a worldclass centre of excellence in mobile telephony research, but also houses a traffic research institute and a department of computer science which is currently developing sophisticated data models for mobile services applications.

With these powerful competencies close at hand, CITS is working on the task of establishing the North Denmark region around Aalborg as a dedicated ITS testbed for research, development and demonstration projects focused especially on mobile services.

MOBILE PHONE IS KEY
Svend Tøfting, who also chairs the steering committee of CITS, is firmly convinced that the mobile phone is a key factor in realising the true potential of ITS, because it follows the user and can supply different kinds of information depending on whether the user is driving a car, using public transport or moving around on foot.

“If ITS systems are put on the mobile phone, it’s a simple matter to connect it through a holder in the car so that it can use the fixed screen and make good use of the car’s larger computing capacity to provide dataintensive traffic information services. Outside of the car the user will have a different spectrum of information needs, which the mobile phone’s processor can comfortably handle.”

Tøfting points to another salient reason why the mobile phone, rather than fixed equipment built into cars, is more suitable as a carrier for ITS systems:

“It takes at least five years for a car to progress from drawing board to roll-out, but the turnaround time for new mobile technologies is much shorter, one to two years. Automotive manufacturers simply cannot accommodate this difference in timescales into their production cycles, so the rapidlyevolving mobile services potential of ITS can only be made quickly available in cars using an aftermarket business approach based on mobile phones.”

A number of ITS test projects are already underway in north Denmark, including a mobile information platform for Norwegian and Swedish tourists visiting the region, a locationbased subscriber service called Streamspin where users receive information tailored to their own specified profile, and an intelligent speed control project where young car drivers are offered insurance discounts in return for having GPS technology in the car which monitors compliance with speed limits.

At CITS, Svend Tøfting is busy talking to numerous parties, in both the public and private sector, to gain further funding for tests in north Denmark, and is optimistic that it will become one of the leading ITS regions in Europe focused on mobile services.

“International surveys consistently show that Denmark is the world leader in IT readiness, and when you combine that with Denmark’s acknowledged talent for creating effective cooperation between the public and private sector, you have a formula for success,” concludes Tøfting.