TIC Smart Client window type "Map" allows users to visualize traffic flow, weather, incident, camera images and many other geo-related data on a map, precisely as it is intended to appear on Navigation devices.  GEWI has designed their own map rendering engine which allows customers to use map data from commercial providers such as HERE and TomTom in GDF data format as well as map data from other providers in custom data formats.

The TIC Smart Client window type "Map" uses map tiles to visualize the detailed map data. These map tiles are highly optimized data packages to speed operator performance but they are just one part of the TIC Digital Map Data.  Other map tiles are created for special purposes such as routing calculations or location referencing purposes. 

In addition to tiles, TIC Digital Map Data also contains other data, such as Auto Complete Location Data, used to find or enter the precise location based on the name of the road or area by entering just a few characters.  This can significantly improve operator performance.

For example, to create the detailed road network for Germany from GDF files, it takes five computers four days to compile over 14.4 million Road Edges to create the TIC Digital Map Data complete with tiles and Auto-Complete location data.

After the TIC Digital Map is created, tests are performed to ensure maximum data quality. If GEWI detects a data error, GEWI will take steps to correct the data and report the issue to the provider of the source data so it will be corrected in future releases.

The TIC Digital Map Data is tightly integrated into all areas of the TIC product which provide benefits for data quality, data accuracy, flexibility and maximum operator performance. Data quality is achieved by the ability to relate many types of data such as camera, speed/flow, weather and more to the precise location where an operator is trying to create a traffic and travel event.  By presenting all of this data in a consolidated view, the operator can ensure that the event about to be created accurately represents what is happening in the real world. 

Data accuracy and flexibility is achieved by the capability to use multiple location referencing systems to ensure the end product is displayed precisely as intended by the TIC user.  Because many referencing methods can be used, TIC is portable, and can be used worldwide without consideration of local referencing methodologies. All location referencing is done using TIC Digital Map Data. 

Ever since Variable Message Signs (VMS) were introduced in the 1960's, two problems arrived with the technology -cost and content.

The cost of the signs limits how many a public agency can afford to deploy, and the content of the message can be problematic.

To convey a detailed message, a series of two VMS messages is often required.  This creates an opportunity for driver distraction as well as an opportunity to miss the full message.

GEWI has analyzed the data feeds which are sent to VMS signs and has confirmed TIC's capability to collect this data and display the text in-vehicle, and at the appropriate geographical location on the road displayed. 

By delivering VMS message data into the vehicle, the driver is free to review the message when it is convenient and safest for them and this can even be before the driver sees the actual sign further ahead.  

The public agency benefits by providing broader reach for the message without incurring any additional costs to deploy additional VMS devices.  VMS messages can even be created and displayed by DOT's where no physical sign exists.

For more information about how TIC can be used for this, and many other traffic data projects, contact info@gewi.com

One of the most significant challenges for organizations who create traffic information data is to create a message that is clearly understood by two quite diverse users - people and devices.  

When creating the message for devices, such as navigation systems, it is critical that the incident must be precisely referenced by both location and event type in order to properly process and display the traffic event. 

The terminology used for the location should match the actual map data used, even though the text of this location may be cumbersome or different from local naming conventions.

When creating a message for people, such as for broadcast or to be viewed on websites or mobile devices, the data that is automatically generated from these same map databases can be confusing and does not often take into account localized names.  

GEWI has recently solved this problem with the new TIC feature "Location Description Editor" (LDE).  This feature allows a TIC user to modify the default location's description to include text that is more easily understood by the end user.   

The LDE feature can also be used in cases where the underlying map data may have missing or erroneous data which, if not corrected, would lead to the distribution of inaccurate or misleading traffic data.

As shown in the image (above), once an event location is created, the user is able to select the individual elements of the location description they would like to modify. 

To make changes, the user simply selects the element they would like to modify, then modify the text of the selected element, and the result is updated to include the corrected, "people friendly" text, while the source data remains intact.

Most importantly, all of the underlying location information, (TIC3 location, TMC location, lat/long, etc.) remains unchanged so it may be properly processed by navigation devices or other systems.

Note that the blue "person icon" is now present to alert the operator that this text was created or modified by a person, rather than the system.

GEWI's product development plans include a new product feature where TIC will be able to track changes which have been made to correct erroneous map data. 

This data can then be provided to third party map data providers, to help improve their map data product.

For more information about the TIC LDE feature contact holger.kuske@gewi.com

Live traffic information is distribute to navigation devices using RDS-TMC and TPEG. Many different traffic information services providers create, collect, and merge data for different countries worldwide.

Car and navigation manufacturers must test their navigation devices to ensure their devices will work consistently at different locations with different data from various traffic information service providers worldwide, in order to avoid creating a new device for each market.

For RDS-TMC, TIC can be used in a test environment to broadcast or distribute traffic data samples provided by traffic information service providers, or manually created traffic event data, to RDS encoders connected to FM transmitters. TIC can also be used in a real production environment to collect data and test broadcast quality.

For TPEG, TIC can be used to manually create traffic event and flow data, and to automatically convert this data into TPEG TEC and TPEG TFP messages which can then be distributed to connected devices over internet HTTP using the standard THTTP request and response protocol.

In addition to TPEG binary, the XML representation of the binary can also be distributed over many different protocols, such as DAB, HD or even FTP.

For more information or to discuss your project requirements, contact a GEWI representative in your region.

Available videos include:

- Weather 

- Parking 

- Work Zone 

- 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.  

GEWI Newsletter
Mar/Apr 2014