iPhone user on CityRail train

Without being aware of it, most people are walking around with sensors in their pockets, also known as mobile phones. A handful of research projects worldwide are now using data derived from sensing the presence of mobile phone activity to learn about patterns of movement and behaviour in cities.

The Real-Time Rome project by MIT’s SENSEable City Lab is the best-known so far, using aggregate data from mobile phone activity over the three days around the World Cup Final in 2006, plotted onto a map of Rome. As France’s Zidane headbutts Italian defender Materazzi and is shown the red card, Rome erupts in a flurry of phone calls and texts, surpassed only by the final whistle indicating Italy’s triumph. The mobile phone data then shows the supporters following the Italian team parading the cup through the streets the following day.

Real Time Rome visualisation by MIT SENSEable City Lab

At Arup, Dan Hill (Sydney) has used research funding to help secure a UTS Partnership Grant, for a project to be led by David Lowe of the UTS Centre for Real-Time Information Networks, with Dan leading Arup’s involvement as sole ‘industry partner’. The project will explore the use of mobile phone data as a way of sensing patterns of movement across Sydney’s transport networks, including feasible platforms for this kind of data collection, information visualisation, and ethical issues.

The huge promise of this approach is in the detail and real-time nature of the results, and the potential benefits to transport networks and overall urban performance as well as urban planning. Feel free to contact Dan at dan.hill@arup.com for more information about this or other Arup Informatics projects.

NB. Here’s a technical update on the project, some months later.