Ann Arbor
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University of Michigan connects 3,000 cars for year-long safety pilot
Road safety continues to be a major concern for both researchers and car makers alike. Yesterday saw yet another real-world trial kicking off, this time on a much grander scale. A total of 3,000 vehicles in Ann Arbor, Michigan are taking part in a 12-month project run by the state's Transportation Research Institute. The vehicles have Dedicated Short Range Communications and video recording facilities, which means the cars can communicate with each other, traffic signals, and share data to a central platform -- which in turn issues warnings when high risk situations, or if traffic problems occur. Of course, this trial will also create a massive data set, which researchers will be able to plunder, and help the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) better determine the viability of such systems. So while it's unlikely to lead to self driving cars just yet, it's a step in the right direction.
FBI raids University of Michigan apartment over possible WoW fraud
A University of Michigan student apartment became the focus of a recent investigation by the FBI, which conducted a raid on March 30th over "potentially fraudulent sales or purchases of virtual currency that people use to advance in the popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft." While the FBI did not make any arrests, it did confiscate several items, including computers, video game equipment, and credit cards. The Bureau is checking out whether one or both of the students were involved in a fraudulent scheme to buy or sell virtual gold, and the agency is looking for online transaction records with various online banks and websites. The two students who share the apartment claim that they do not play WoW and are confident that they are innocent. One of the unnamed students commented: "They thought we were involved in some kind of fraud. I'm pretty sure they have the wrong people, but they took all my stuff."
HD channel expansion roundup
Once upon a time, a smattering of new HD channels in one major metropolitan area was a huge deal. Nowadays, it's almost expected that one area or another will experience some HD expansion each week. In order to keep things nice and tidy around here, we deliver high-def expansions, market expansions and anything else dealing with HD channel growth right here. If we missed an area that you're familiar with, drop us a line in comments so everyone can catch up. The more the merrier, we say! Read - Time Warner Cable launches Smithsonian Channel in high definition Read - Brighthouse Tampa Bay adds Fox News, MLB Network, SPEED, WGN America, CNBC, AMC, Bio, WZRA (Thanks, Kaylan) Read - Comcast adds Speed/FX/Fox News in New Jersey (Thanks, Sriram) Read - Massive Comcast additions coming to Ann Arbor "Soon" (Thanks, Jordan) Read - Verizon adds 8 new HD channels in Tampa Bay (Thanks, Mike)
Ann Arbor street lights to be replaced with LEDs
The latest locale to join Toronto and Raleigh in the LED City initiative is none other than the home of the Wolverines, which recently announced plans to replace about 1,400 street lights with light-emitting diodes. The city is claiming that it will be the nation's first to "convert all downtown street lights to LED technology," and it's hoping to save around $100,000 per year in doing so. Not surprisingly, Research Triangle Park-based Cree will be providing the components for Ann Arbor's transformation, and it sounds like it'll take a couple of years before the $630,000 project is actually completed. Hopefully, it won't take quite that long before the Maize and Blue can topple Ohio State again.[Image courtesy of University of Michigan]
