BITS Networked Systems Laboratory
The BITS laboratory does a variety of research in Networked Systems.
Our work revolves around real-world applications, such as open wireless Internet access, transit navigation, and traffic management.
Featured Research Projects
Below are some of our ongoing research projects. For more information, follow the links in the left column.EasyTracker: Automatic Transit Tracking, Mapping and Arrival Time Prediction
People love bus trackers. Rather than hope the bus is running on schedule, you simply pull up your phone and see when the bus is actually going to arrive. Unfortunately, setting up a bus tracking system can be a complex operation. The goal of EasyTracker is to automate this process, requiring minimal technical expertise and making bus tracking within reach to a wide array of transit agencies of all sizes.
To create a bus tracking system using EasyTracker, a transit agency will simply need to place a smartphone running our tracking app in each bus, and let EasyTracker take care of the rest.
EasyTracker, as presented by BITS Ph.D. student James Biagioni received the ``Best Presentation'' award at SenSys 2011.
Keep your eyes out for the publicly available version of this service in the coming months!
TransitGenie: a context-aware, real-time transit navigator
TransitGenie is a context-aware, real-time transit navigator that fits in the palm of your hand. Using smartphone platforms such as the iPhone, and a sophisticated real-time routing backend, TransitGenie integrates published transit schedules with real-time official and crowd-sourced transit tracking data to compute the best route for you, at this moment.
With TransitGenie, we are taking the first steps toward pervasive, omniscient and somewhat prescient transit navigation system. Used by people all over the civilized world, hooked into every available data feed. Read more about TransitGenie on this site. It was also featured on CTA's "Connections" show (starting at 1:00).
Recent Publications
- [BiagioniEriksson12]
- James Biagioni and Jakob Eriksson. Inferring Road Maps from GPS Traces: Survey and Comparative Evaluation. In 91st Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, page to appear, 2012. [ .pdf ]
- [BiagioniEtal11]
- James Biagioni, Tomas Gerlich, Timothy Merrifield, and Jakob Eriksson. EasyTracker: Automatic Transit Tracking, Mapping, and Arrival Time Prediction Using Smartphones. In SenSys, pages 68-81. ACM, 2011. [ .pdf ]
- [GerlichEtal11]
- Tomas Gerlich, James Biagioni, Timothy Merrifield, and Jakob Eriksson. Demo: Tracking Transit with EasyTracker. In SenSys, pages 401-402. ACM, 2011. [ .pdf ]
- [MusaEriksson11]
- A.B.M. Musa and Jakob Eriksson. Demo: WiFlow - Real Time Travel Time Estimation Using Wi-Fi Monitors. In SenSys, pages 429-430. ACM, 2011. [ .pdf ]
- [ThiagarajanEtal10]
- Arvind Thiagarajan, James Biagioni, Tomas Gerlich, and Jakob Eriksson. Cooperative Transit Tracking using GPS-enabled Smartphones. In SenSys, pages 85-98. ACM, 2010. [ .pdf ]
- [BiagioniEtal09]
- James Biagioni, Adrian Agresta, Tomas Gerlich, and Jakob Eriksson. TransitGenie: A real-time, context-aware transit navigator (demo abstract). In SenSys, pages 329-330. ACM, 2009. [ .pdf ]
- [ThiagarajanEtal09]
- Arvind Thiagarajan, Lenin Sivalingam, Katrina LaCurts, Sivan Toledo, Jakob Eriksson, Samuel Madden, and Hari Balakrishnan. VTrack: Accurate, Energy-Aware Traffic Delay Estimation Using Mobile Phones. In SenSys, pages 85-98. ACM, 2009. Best paper award. [ .pdf ]
Publicity
- TV appearance on ABC7, commenting on snow plow tracking watch clip. Jan 2012.
- Cover story in the Chicago Red-Eye: Track Stars. Jan 2011.
- TV interview in CTA Connections (1 minute into the video). June 2010.
- Article in UIC News Need portable, real-time transit info? There's an app for that. Feb 2010.
| I | Attachment | Action | Size | Date | Who | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 png |
EasyTracker.png | manage | 670.7 K | 2011-11-05 - 17:30 | Main.JakobEriksson | EasyTracker screenshot from SenSys 2011 demo. |
| png |
antenna.png | manage | 74.3 K | 2009-08-04 - 16:25 | Main.JakobEriksson | Picture of a directional WiFi antenna |
| png |
bitslogo.png | manage | 27.3 K | 2009-05-19 - 20:07 | Main.TWikiAdminUser | |
| png |
lab_meeting.png | manage | 558.4 K | 2010-07-01 - 22:27 | Main.JakobEriksson | |
 jpg |
musa_explaining.jpg | manage | 70.9 K | 2010-07-01 - 22:25 | Main.JakobEriksson | |
| png |
tgscreenshots.png | manage | 170.7 K | 2009-08-04 - 16:13 | Main.JakobEriksson | |
| png |
tgscreenshots_v1.png | manage | 289.3 K | 2009-11-18 - 21:01 | Main.JamesBiagioni | TransitGenive v1.0 screenshots |
Research Projects
Campus Service
- UIC Shuttle Tracker
- PlanetLab
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