Overview
Existing real-time information services for road traffic and public transport are in the majority of cases developed only for a special area and/or for only one mode of transport. The integration of such services is still rather uncommon and primarily only realised in research projects in the form of a prototype.
This project is largely concerned with investigating and specifying the framework for a Europe-wide multimodal traffic information service offering real time information and special services for the road and public transport user. These services will make information and various types of digital contents available for European travellers via on-trip-devices like PDA/Smart Phones or in-car-systems.
The range of services comprises real time traffic information for road traffic and public transport, dynamic (and multimodal) routing services and special services like reservation of parking space, booking of personalised public transport services (e.g. Demand Responsive Transport) as well as additional travel-related services such as tourist information or hotel reservation.
The aim of eMOTION is to specify the framework for a Europe-wide multimodal traffic information service that offers real time information and special services for the road and public transport user via on-tripdevices.
The eMOTION project is a cooperation between public authorities, transport service operators, telecommunication operators, IT suppliers, research centres, and transport consultancies from all over Europe aiming to investigate, specify and assess Europe-wide, multi-modal, on-trip traffic information services (eMOTION) for European travellers.
The eMOTION consortium includes a selection of experienced public and private organisations across Europe, covering all key aspects of the eMOTION service value chain.
eMOTION is an answer to a well-known situation in the traffic information and mobility field where nearly all fields are supported by information technologies. Yet the creation of new and innovative traveller information service reaching across different transport domains does not seem to be feasible. The main reason, among others, is a missing coherence in information from different domains.
All aspects to be dealt with in this respect can be classified in two branches or 'pillars'. Both pillars generate, at the end, different aspects for the generation and provision of a Europe-wide multi-modal on-trip Traffic Information service. The eMOTION project has investigated these two main conceptual pillars: one referring to the organisational, legal and economic issues and the second addressing related technical aspects.
In the first stages of the project, and specifically in Work Package 1, important preliminary activities have been carried out in order to generate the basics for the subsequent specifications. Referring to the first pillar policy and contractual issues have been investigated throughout the course of WP2 activities and a business model and financial framework analysis including an initial Cost Benefit Analysis has been performed in WP4.
Technical aspects (the second pillar of the eMOTION activities) have been studied and developed with a high level of completeness and resulted in a comprehensive and very detailed technical specification. This work, carried out in WP3, offers all the references for the development of a eMOTION-based technical infrastructure and has constituted the starting point for the development of prototypes in two pilot sites: Austria and Genoa, Italy. These 'Proof of the Concept' activities, including design, implementation, analysis and assessment of the operability in the pilot sites was carried out in WP5.
Finally, due to the nature of the project, specific dissemination and exploitation activities has been performed as they represents key factors to create the appropriate conditions for the eMOTION approach to be known and encouraged. This included dissemination of the project results, the development of an exploitation plan, and the provision of recommendations on eMOTION framework conditions.
Funding
Results
eMOTION defines a service-oriented architecture, which enables the step-by-step integration of all existing information services using the well-known Publish-find-find SOA Paradigm. It is based on:
- The eMOTION Data Model is the conceptual basis for enabling Services to deliver uniform data in the eMOTION Single Information Space. It is encoded and documented in Unified Modelling Language (UML) and is based on a selection, harmonisation and integration of the existing standard. It is the central supporting pillar of the eMOTION Technical Specification making sure that every eMOTION Service and Application can understand and interpret eMOTION data.
- The Information Metadata Model which is an additional scheme, with objects used to describe the eMOTION objects proper. Metadata is used to publish, find and evaluate emotion information sources in the distributed eMOTION environment.
- The Service Metadata Model which specifies the data necessary to describe the service interface in the eMOTION.
- The specification of the distribution of nodes in the eMOTION system.
The analysis of Business models and financial frameworks comprises:
- An analysis of the current market situation with respect to web-based and mobile travel-related information services, today's business models and emerging eMOTION business framework as well as revenue indicators and cost drivers for the various eMOTION services.
- An analysis of the business structure of centralised/common eMOTION services and decentralised offerings. Potential evolution paths ware also elaborated.
There are two test sites each with a specific implementation of the eMOTION specifications for a proof of the concept of the project:
- Genoa (Italy) with a test application focusing on localized information about traffic, parking, timetables and POls.
- Austria with an application focusing on real time multimodal traffic information.
Technical Implications
The innovation of the eMOTION project is the specification of a distributed system of interoperable services following the OGC definition. Compliant to the OGC specifications, the eMOTION information system will use service metadata. These 'service metadata records' can be managed and searched using a catalogue service as it is done for dataset metadata. In order to provide a catalogue for discovering services, a scheme for describing a service is needed. The metadata elements for a service provide sufficient information to allow a client to invoke the service based on the metadata record.
eMOTION builds upon results of previous European research projects and takes into account running initiatives like the Centrico project OTAP. The provision of geo-referenced data and information is based on the specifications of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) including support for Location Based Services (LBS).