In a bid to warn UK drivers of impending snarl-ups on the road ahead, the Automobile Association, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, the University of Sussex and Racal Research Ltd are teaming up on a three-year, UKP1m project – partly funded by the Department of Trade & Industry – to design a system that automatically collects and disseminates traffic information. The aim of the project, dubbed POETIC – for POrtable Extendable Traffic Information Collector – is to develop the recently completed Alvey Traffic Information Collector prototype into a fully-working application, making it available on a range of hardware with a set of tools tailored to the needs of different police forces. Information collected from standard police computer logging messages about traffic hold-ups is collated by the system and advisory messages are produced for distribution to remote printers in radio stations and to future Radio Data System in-car information systems. The system was developed on Sun Microsystems Inc Sun-3 workstations in Brighton by University of Sussex computer scientists – in conjunction with Plessey, Racal Research and HUSAT – using their Poplog multi-language development environment, which is now marketed by Integral Soltions Ltd of Basingstoke, Hampshire.
