Greetings!
These are exciting times in the traffic information market as new technologies and new devices are providing the ability to create, view and distribute higher quality traffic data than ever before. The higher quality data and new data types provide many benefits for drivers. Among these benefits are the ability to avoid congestion, location based alerts about traffic, weather, construction or other hazards, and traffic flow and prediction. Central to the ability to provide many new types of data to navigation devices is the TPEG message, used in the connected vehicles market.
GEWI has been involved in the development of TPEG from the very beginning, and is an active member of TISA. GEWI developers Thomas Rothe and Alexander Fust are active in several TISA groups, and Alexander, who is a member of TISA’s TPEG Application Working Group and Speed (TAWG) and Speed Information (SPI) working group is profiled in this issue.
You’ll also read how TIC is used by automobile and device manufacturers to test the traffic data before it is provided to the driver, as well as how TIC is used in a real-world project for winter road conditions and work zones.
GEWI is also making 2013 conference plans and will be attending and exhibiting at conferences in Tokyo Japan, Nashville Tennessee, Toronto Ontario, Dublin Ireland, Houston Texas as well as TISA events in the USA, and Germany.
Many of the futuristic visions on which GEWI was founded in 1992 are being realized today. And as GEWI enters our 21st year in business, we are excited about the many ways TIC is being used for advanced traffic projects, and considered for markets well beyond keeping drivers informed worldwide.
Should you have any questions on anything in this newsletter, or to discuss your requirements, please contact us at info@gewi.com.
GEWI Hosts ITS America Webinar on TPEG and Connected Vehicles
As part of the ITS America webinar series on transportation technologies, GEWI hosted a session focusing on TPEG and connected vehicles on December 5th, 2012.
The session entitled “How navigation, connected vehicles and DOT’s are benefitting from TPEG technology” was moderated by GEWI North America’s Jim O’Neill. Presenters were Jonathan Burr of Mylor Technologies, Matthias Unbehaun, Executive Director of TISA, and Hagen Geppert, CEO, GEWI Worldwide.
The webinar provided a background of TPEG technology, answered why TPEG is relevant to DOT’s, where TPEG is already deployed, and how TPEG is used in connected vehicle projects and ended with an example of a real world TPEG technical solution.
An archive of the webinar is available here, click on Webinar Series Archive.
GEWI Customer Project: NOEL Work Zone & Winter Road Service
Keeping motorists informed of both winter road conditions and summer roadwork projects is another way TIC CONNECTS: Systems – Vehicles – Travelers.
Since 2010, the Austrian Federal State of Niederösterreich has been using TIC to create and distribute information about winter road conditions and work zones for the entire 14,000km road network.
During the winter season, each of the 58 road maintenance departments reports current road conditions in their district to the TIC operator. This information is used to create an overview report (which districts have snowfall, road conditions, the highest/lowest temperature, chain requirements, etc.) in “Microsoft Word” format, including a map. This information is exported from TIC, showing all districts and their information.
The information is referenced to a network and automatically distributed to customers such as traffic information centers. Historical data is exported into a file which is used to create statistics using third party tools to analyze data each month.
During the construction season, TIC is also used to create and distribute information about work zones. TIC provides the capability of managing the complex information structure of work zones, including:
Information about the individual work phases, including information about the traffic and duration of delays.
Each section has a location referenced to the network, information about diversions and information about the lanes.
Each lane has information about maximum height, maximum weight, etc.
Starting with the 2013 work zone season TIC will also be used by 8 road construction departments to create information for their responsible areas.
Work zone information is also automatically distributed to customers such as traffic information centers. And, as with winter road conditions, historical data is exported into a file which is used to create statistics using third party tools to analyze data each month.
GEWI Event: TISA Committee Meeting in Seattle, Washington
TISA (Traveller Information Services Association) is a market-driven membership association with worldwide scope, established as a non-profit company focused on proactive implementation of traffic and travel information services and products based on existing standards, including primarily RDS-TMC and TPEG technologies.
GEWI has been a TISA member since 2007 and attends and contributes to both TISA committee meetings and working groups. GEWI will be attending the upcoming TISA committee meeting March 19-20 in Seattle Washington.
Two TISA groups in which GEWI is particularly active are:
The TMC Location Table Release Team (LTRT): GEWI Product Developer Thomas Rothe is the group Chairman. The team meets twice a year and has regular conference calls to check and provide certification for new and updated location tables as well as working on proposals to improve the TMC Standard.
TPEG Application Working Group (TAWG): a working group that develops TPEG Applications, Adaptation Layers, Profiles and Guidelines, all for worldwide standardization and TISA Members own use. GEWI Product Developer Alexander Fust plays an active role in the working group by attending meetings and participating in the review of proposed standardization submissions. The TAWG also operates an informal forum to assist TISA members in implementing TPEG systems and services.
TIC Technology: TPEG
While most car and navigation device manufacturers are able to provide travel event information along a route, many are now also able to provide additional information such as traffic flow, speed, weather and parking. This
enhanced information can be provided using TPEG which either simply delivers data over a digital broadcast, or when an interactive driver experience is required, using a connected vehicle service over internet connections.
The map, provided by TISA, shows where TPEG services are in operation (blue) or planned (yellow).
TIC can be used to collect and create traffic and travel event data, as well as collect traffic flow data such as speed and volume. All data in TIC is harmonized and referenced to a single consistent road network. Traffic and travel event data can then be automatically created from traffic flow data.
TIC can create distribute standard TPEG TEC (Traffic Event Compact) and TPEG TFP (Traffic Flow and Prediction), referenced either to TMC locations or the standard AGORA-C referencing method used to dynamically encode and decode locations without using a fixed TMC location table. The TPEG data can then be distributed as either binary data, over THTTP, or as digital radio broadcasts such as DAB and HD. Multiple custom TPEG device profiles can be simultaneously supported.
For more information about TPEG, contact info@gewi.com
TIC Product Feature: TIC for NavTest
Navigation devices using the TPEG standard provides many benefits to drivers, but it is important that the data is properly processed by the navigation system to ensure the data displayed is an accurate representation of what is happening in real time.
For this reason, automobile and device manufacturers use TIC for Navtest to create test TPEG messages to ensure data quality for drivers.
TIC is used to create TPEG TEC (traffic event compact) and TFP (traffic flow and prediction) message. TIC is also used to process TPEG files that have been created by service providers. The validity and content of the TPEG files can be checked as well as ensuring the files are properly decoded by the navigation device.
TIC for NavTest is already in use by many automobile and device manufacturers and is available as a hosted service from GEWI, or as software for the customer.
For more information on TIC for NavTest, contact info@gewi.com
Product Videos on GEWI Website
GEWI’s web site includes videos for several TIC product features. The videos make it easy for website visitors to self-demonstrate the TIC system and to view how specific product features can be used for a variety of public and private sector markets.
Available videos include:
– Weather
– Parking
– Work Zone
– GPS
– Cameras
– Traffic & Travel Events
– Mobile Traffic Data Entry
– Traffic News
More videos are being produced to provide an introduction to other TIC product features, so check www.gewi.com occasionally to view the new videos.
Download Latest TIC for Traffic Brochure
The TIC3 product allows you to perform many transportation related tasks simply by configuration of this commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software.
Click here to download the TIC product brochure which describes how the same TIC3 product architecture which can be flexibly configured and used for many different purposes including:
-Traffic & Travel Information Services
-Connected Vehicles
-Parking Information
-Navigation System Testing
-Data Harmonization and Exchange
-Work Zones
-Radio Data
-RDS-TMC
-TPEG
As a commercial off-the shelf (COTS) solution, TIC can be deployed and expanded much more quickly and cost effectively than custom build-your-own solutions while offering the most advanced features and functionality.
For more information, visit www.gewi.com.
GEWI Newsletter
Jan/Feb 2013
In this Issue
Webinar on Connected Vehicles and TPEG
Projects Powered by TIC
TISA Meetings
TIC Technology: TPEG
TIC Product Feature: NavTest
TIC Product Videos
Download TIC Brochure
GEWI Profile – Alexander Fust
Quick Links
ITS America Webinar Series
TISA Forum
TIC Videos
GEWI Website
GEWI on FOX TV
TIC for iPad
GEWI Products
GEWI News
GEWI Newsletters
About GEWI
Request More Information
GEWI Profile
Alexander Fust
Product Development
In the five years since Alexander joined GEWI as a student apprentice, he has expanded his role in the product development team and has now grown to become central to GEWI’s development of TPEG features of TIC.
Alexander graduated with a computer science degree from Anhalt University and is skilled in C/C++, Qt, C#, .Net, and TPEG.
He is also a member of TISA’s TPEG Application Working Group and Speed (TAWG) and supports the Speed Information (SPI) working group of TISA.
TAWG is responsible for specifying TPEG standards while SPI is a new TPEG application related to providing information about road speeds to drivers.
Recently, Alexander represented GEWI at the TISA Committee Meetings in December 2012 in Bordeaux, France and was also involved in the very successful “TPEG TestFest” held in Munich.
Alexander’s experience and hard work in TPEG are one reason why today TIC CONNECTS: Vehicles and Information.
