Big Data Analytics Applications - Big Data Analytics: Disruptive Technologies for Changing the Game - page 19

understand its use and how bottlenecks or conigurations impact performance.
In the past, this data required extensive manual data collection costs. Big Data
provides a natural source of data with minimal data collection costs. I will lay
out examples from public services to illustrate this point.
The city of Boston decided to use Big Data to identify potholes in the streets
by sponsoring a competition in the analyst community. A winner came from
Sprout & Co., a nonproit group in Somerville, Massachusetts. The solution
included the use of magnitude-of-acceleration spikes along a cell phone's z-axis
to spot impacts, plus additional ilters to distinguish potholes from other irregu-
larities on the road. The new algorithm made Street Bump, a free download in
Apple's App Store, a winner. 13 This analysis can save signiicant road survey cost.
Navigation systems can also use the cell phone data to avoid trafic congestion
and offer alternate routes. This type of use of Big Data is one of the best ways
to gain acceptance without getting into privacy or security issues.
In another example, city bus and train agencies are making their real-time
transit information available to riders. This information signiicantly improves
the user experience and reduces the uncertainty associated with both planned
and unexpected delays. Transloc ( www.transloc.com ) provides this information
for riders using a variety of technologies, including smartphones, web, and SMS
messages. It also provides prediction capabilities on expected arrival time. Once
the app is loaded on a smartphone, the rider can use it to accurately estimate
travel time and also review the travel route.
IBM's Smarter Cities ® initiative is using Big Data in a number of applica-
tions directed at city infrastructure and operations. Location data from cell
phones can be used to provide raw material for detecting trafic patterns.
These patterns can then be used to decide on new transportation projects,
to change controls, or to redirect trafic in case of an emergency.
Another important application for Big Data Analytics is public safety. The New
York Police Department is using Big Data for crime prevention. 14
3.4 Product Selection, Design, and Engineering
Product automation provides an enormous opportunity to measure customer
experience. We take photos digitally and then post them on Facebook, provid-
ing an opportunity for face recognition without requiring laborious cycles in
digitization. We listen to songs on Pandora, creating an opportunity to measure
what we like or dislike or how often we skip a song after listening to the part of
it that we like the most. We read topics electronically online or on our favorite