You buy this low-cost balloon/camera (low resolution slow speed), which sends images every few seconds thru bluetooth to your car receiver, which then relays them on the cellular network to a server.
You then get a realtime picture of traffic everywhere.-- pashute, Aug 16 2007 realtime picture of traffic http://www.sigalert.com/Baked in my area without "baloons". These cameras are all around. I think you have to pay for the service to see the pictures, though. [globaltourniquet, Aug 16 2007, last modified Aug 17 2007] ODOT Cams http://www.tripchec...nNav=RoadConditionsExtremely widespread and free. Balloons to have this much coverage would blot out the sun. [Klaatu, Aug 18 2007] birthday bun+-- k_sra, Aug 16 2007 (-) You want to drag a balloon on a 10-30ft leash behind a car going, say, 60 mph? How high up do you figure it would go? More than 3ft?-- jutta, Aug 17 2007 Sp. 'ballooncam'.-- imaginality, Aug 17 2007 In some defense of the idea, [jutta], the places where you tend to care about seeing the traffic real time, the "baloon" will be flying much higher, as the car will be moving at about 5 mph. At least that's the way it is on my freeway, the 91 Westbound into Orange County in SoCal, and that's why I take the train.
So if all you see on your video is the back of the "balooncam" car, I guess you can figure you're good to go.-- globaltourniquet, Aug 17 2007 The balloon can't go too high, I think bluetooth range is less than ten meters.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 17 2007 electricity wires.-- k_sra, Aug 17 2007 overpasses.-- Klaatu, Aug 18 2007 You could reel the balloon in (touch the "reel in" button on the dash, or have it done automagically) for electricity cables and overpasses.-- Cosh i Pi, Aug 19 2007 Ah yes, the "reel in" makes it work, although more as an extreme periscope than as a steady service. And you could have little bluetooth repeaters along the line, I guess - I think they'd be lighter than just running a cable up. Or just use some line-of-sight network. Or, wait, can we use a glass fiber line in the string for communication? That would be cool.-- jutta, Aug 19 2007 Whether they'd be lighter than a thin wire I don't know, but they'd be safer in the event of a failure to reel in under an HT cable...
Reeling it in and stowing it in through the sun roof when going fast would be better from a drag pov, too.-- Cosh i Pi, Aug 19 2007 2 3 meters is enough. hitting a bridge just bounces it down for a second.and back up. Worse comes to worst, you loose the tiny camera which costs less than a dollar and has no sharp edges so no problem for cars in traffic.-- pashute, Feb 03 2021 random, halfbakery