Smart uses of mobile phone power

For the first time smart phones and tablet PCs could be used by police officers to help solve crimes faster and more cheaply.

Dr. Mohamed Gaber, of the University of Portsmouth鈥檚 School of Computing, told an international conference that combining the power and wireless facilities of smart phones to collect and process information quickly, rather than relying on centralized computers, could revolutionize crime fighting, mobile healthcare and live business intelligence.

His research has been hailed as outstanding by experts and could pave the way for the first mobile tool for collecting and streaming large amounts of information over the internet.

The combined of mobile phones could also be used to monitor people鈥檚 health more quickly and more cheaply than existing methods allow.
Dr. Gaber said: 鈥淭his is the first time a method has been found to stream information collected from smart phones working together.

鈥泪尘补驳颈苍别 equipped with smart phones that can capture all the sensory information in a crime scene such as fingerprints and digital images鈥� all the data could be analysed locally and the results could be fused together in real-time to give them some insights and knowledge.

鈥淲e have discovered that we can get excellent results with as few as eight mobile phones being used together where each phone handles a maximum of 40 per cent of the all the possible measurements.

鈥淚t is the combination of the power and the acquired data on each device that would make the difference. In fact, one smart phone can do the whole process if it has all the features of the data. However, it is more realistic to assume that each individual can see only part of the picture and collectively we can see the whole picture.鈥�

The processing power of smart phones could also be used in mobile health care.

Dr. Gaber said: 鈥淒ifferent mobile devices that measure different physiological signs and symptoms such as ECG, blood pressure and body temperature could be fused together to assess the patient. This could help elderly people and those with chronic diseases to travel and go shopping without being worried.

鈥淎lso, patients could use their mobile phones anytime anywhere to monitor their condition and automatically have messages sent through their phone to the emergency department or the doctor if the patient鈥檚 condition is getting critical and requires immediate treatment.鈥�

The data streaming process does not interfere with the phones鈥� normal use and calls can be made and SMS texts sent and read 鈥� the owner just has to agree to allow their phone鈥檚 processing power to be used in the background.

Dr. Gaber said: 鈥淪uch a collaborative process allows for many things. In a neighbourhood, for example, we can share data collected using our in order to make better decisions about local transport or rubbish collection. In this way being collaborative helps us in taking collective decisions.鈥�

One of the key differences between using mobile streaming data mining as opposed to sending all the information back to a centralised computer to process is the information can be ultra-localized and the speed of processing can be faster and significantly cheaper.

Dr. Gaber has his research presented at an international conference on 鈥楾ools with Artificial Intelligence鈥�. He was told by experts that the research was outstanding and the most effective and best pieces of research presented. He and colleagues Dr. Frederic Stahl and Professor Max Bramer have now been invited to submit it to a special issue of the Journal of Computer and System Sciences.

Provided by University of Portsmouth

Citation: Smart uses of mobile phone power (2011, January 19) retrieved 29 July 2025 from /news/2011-01-smart-mobile-power.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Health-conscious future could stem from smartphones

0 shares

Feedback to editors