Problem: If people cannot evaluate in real-time the CO2 emissions associated with their transportation choices they cannot consider this impact on the environment in their mobility decisions. Technology: The invention presents a novel method to estimate real-time CO2 emissions using data from mobile phone sensors (accelerometer GPS). An algorithm uses a Decision Tree classification method to determine the user’s transportation mode using inertial information from the phone sensors. A second algorithm computes the distance travelled using the GPS and internet map services. The classification algorithm has been developed and tested for mobile phones based on Android operating systems. The data is made relevant to the user by converting it into CO2 emissions.
1) Automatic transportation mode recognition 2) No manual input necessary 3) No specific position and orientation of device required 4) Restricted battery consumption: accelerometer GPS and online maps query only sparsely 5) Established infrastructure (smart phones) with large user base