FIND ME A PARKING SPACE
The mad dash for that last parking space is about to go ballistic. Engineers at Boston University and networking firm BBN Technology have designed a wireless network that will send details of the nearest vacant parking spot to an in-car receiver.
Delegates to Mobisys, a mobile technology conference in Boston this week, heard how parking meters of the future could be equipped with an embedded computer, a sensor to detect when a vehicle is parked in the space next to it, and a short-range radio transmitter. The transmitters would link the computers into a peer-to-peer network, so there would by no need for any central network hub.
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To use the system, a driver could simply ask the network to find the closest space to a particular restaurant or theatre, or for a list of meters scheduled to become available after a certain time. Co-designer Thomas Little of Boston University believes the network could spare motorists their daily parking nightmare 鈥� though he admits that when parking spaces are in short supply the scheme could lead to several drivers converging on a single free spot.
MP3 RECORDERS FISH FOR SOUND
Fishermen are busy casting MP3 recorders into the waters off Massachusetts and Maine as part of a plan to help restore dwindling fish stocks.
A team led by Cliff Goudey, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology鈥檚 Center for Fisheries Engineering Research, is using the MP3 devices to record the telltale sounds made by fish prior to spawning. During courtship they vibrate their swim bladder to produce a knocking sound 鈥� similar to that of an idling motorbike engine 鈥� that helps them broadcast their location and fitness to potential mates. 鈥淏y analysing these purrs, grunts and knocks, we can identify spawning grounds and protect them so that declining fish stocks can rebound,鈥� says Goudey.
Packed in a watertight case with an external underwater microphone, or hydrophone, the recorders are strapped to a steel plate which takes them down to the seafloor.
The high-capacity digital devices have enough memory to record 60 hours of sound, after which they are hauled up for analysis. The work has already identified the location of important haddock spawning grounds off Gloucester, Maine.
