Ford and University of Michigan show students’ vision of future in-car cloud computing apps
Here’s an interesting piece of news coming out of the world of software/automobiles. Ford and the University of Michigan announced today the conclusion of a new 12 week-long course entitled “Cloud Computing in the Commute” where six teams of students designed, engineered, and prototyped six unique social networking/transportation mobile apps as part of a larger Ford initiative entitled “American Journey 2.0”. “American Journey 2.0” is described as a “joint open innovation research project” involving Microsoft and Intel offering students a chance to “innovate the future of the in-car experience.”
This course (which makes me wish I could attend college again.. just a little bit that is) allowed students to explore and build software apps based on access to Ford’s developmental application platform built on Windows 7 and Microsoft’s Robotic Developer Studio – “Fiestaware”. According to the press release, the platform:
“enabled them to harness the power of social networks that safely and responsibly connect to the cloud. The software system is the first of its kind, and provides access to vehicle performance data, networking services, voice recognition, social networking tools and other data, as well as the Windows Azure cloud services platform. Students in the class were able to use the platform to conceptualize and build a new class of applications as class projects.”
Students were encouraged to explore the power of cloud computing and natural user interfaces in the confines of a car environment.
The six teams presented their software applications to a panel of judges from Ford, the University of Michigan, and Microsoft which then determined the winner to be the “Caravan Track” app. Caravan Track “allows clusters of vehicles traveling together to track each other along the journey. After identifying a route on a main website, users can join to see fellow travelers; view vehicle telemetry including fuel level and speed; track each vehicle; map routes; send alerts about stops along the way; and send text notifications about road conditions and hazards via a multiple choice interface that eliminates the need to type. Team members include John Ciccone, Collin Hockey, Sang Park and Joe Phillips.”
The other apps included Fuel Tracker, The GreenRide Challenge, Listen. Speak. Rate. Share, NostraMap, and Points-of-Interest.
The winning application, called Caravan Track, will run on a Windows 7 PC in a Ford Fiesta research vehicle that will make a socially networked road trip from the university to Maker Faire, the world’s largest do-it-yourself ideas festival in Silicon Valley, held in San Mateo, Calif., beginning May 22. The road trip will leave from Ann Arbor on May 14.
