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We've been working on the solution to this issue since our office is overlooking the tracks. You can read more here: http://svds.com/post/listening-caltrain htt

We've been working on the solution to this issue since our office is overlooking the tracks. You can read more here: http://svds.com/post/listening-caltrain http://svds.com/post/listening-caltrain and here: http://svds.com/post/railroad-modeling-hadoop-scale-hadoop-summit-2014-san-jose http://svds.com/post/railroad-modeling-hadoop-scale-hadoop-s...

mcpherrinm 12y ago
Heh, the author of this post's twitter says he works at Matasano, which appears to be downstairs from you. I guess working next to the tracks has that affect on people!
bduerst 12y ago
That's pretty cool. I love the idea of scraping real-world information. I did something similar using a GoPro and computer vision when I lived next to one of the 101 off-ramps in SF. I got it to work for most daylight hours (headlights screwed it up hardcore) before our landlord raised our rent by $1000/mo and we moved. I figured it could have been a way to calculate ad impressions for billboards, but I also figured Clear Channel probably already knows those numbers.
- winslow 12y ago
  I wouldn't be so sure that Clear Channel knows those numbers. You'd be surprised how little data big companies know. Do you have a github or blog post on your experiment?
  - bduerst 12y ago
    Sadly I don't, and it was a self-project I was doing to learn OCR (to scrape price tags in grocery stores) and thus I never backed it up on github. Do you have industry experience with billboard advertising? I might rebuild it if there is an actual demand for it.
    - winslow 12y ago
      Unfortunately I do not have experience in billboard advertising. However, I do have experience in massive companies (they suck) as a Software Engineer and I've realized how little they actually know about their own products and the data associated with it. You could probably contact Clear Channel trying to advertise with them and just ask for simple data like expected eye balls/views and population etc. If they have absolutely no idea then you have your answer that there might be a market for this. Your market might not even been the billboard company but rather someone trying to advertise. If I were to advertise I would want some data behind the advertising platform along with some way to track its effectiveness. I assume you are the same @bduerst?
ChuckMcM 12y ago
Fascinating, so I wonder how hard it would be just to put a GPS bug on the trains. These things are magnetic, you can get them to send SMS messages to a number, throw it up on top of the train car when it stops at the station :-). Of course Caltrain could do this official like but I think that would be to efficient for them.
- rachelbythebay 12y ago
  Hide one inside the power outlets upstairs and you need not worry about batteries... Just gps reception and cell signals.
  - ChuckMcM 12y ago
    Even better :-) GPS is nominally a pain on metal roofed train cars but it probably is doable.

mcpherrinm 12y ago

Heh, the author of this post's twitter says he works at Matasano, which appears to be downstairs from you. I guess working next to the tracks has that affect on people!

bduerst 12y ago

That's pretty cool. I love the idea of scraping real-world information. I did something similar using a GoPro and computer vision when I lived next to one of the 101 off-ramps in SF. I got it to work for most daylight hours (headlights screwed it up hardcore) before our landlord raised our rent by $1000/mo and we moved. I figured it could have been a way to calculate ad impressions for billboards, but I also figured Clear Channel probably already knows those numbers.

winslow 12y ago
I wouldn't be so sure that Clear Channel knows those numbers. You'd be surprised how little data big companies know. Do you have a github or blog post on your experiment?
- bduerst 12y ago
  Sadly I don't, and it was a self-project I was doing to learn OCR (to scrape price tags in grocery stores) and thus I never backed it up on github. Do you have industry experience with billboard advertising? I might rebuild it if there is an actual demand for it.
  - winslow 12y ago
    Unfortunately I do not have experience in billboard advertising. However, I do have experience in massive companies (they suck) as a Software Engineer and I've realized how little they actually know about their own products and the data associated with it. You could probably contact Clear Channel trying to advertise with them and just ask for simple data like expected eye balls/views and population etc. If they have absolutely no idea then you have your answer that there might be a market for this. Your market might not even been the billboard company but rather someone trying to advertise. If I were to advertise I would want some data behind the advertising platform along with some way to track its effectiveness. I assume you are the same @bduerst?

ChuckMcM 12y ago

Fascinating, so I wonder how hard it would be just to put a GPS bug on the trains. These things are magnetic, you can get them to send SMS messages to a number, throw it up on top of the train car when it stops at the station :-). Of course Caltrain could do this official like but I think that would be to efficient for them.

rachelbythebay 12y ago
Hide one inside the power outlets upstairs and you need not worry about batteries... Just gps reception and cell signals.
- ChuckMcM 12y ago
  Even better :-) GPS is nominally a pain on metal roofed train cars but it probably is doable.