Cool
An Israeli inventor in Jerusalem has won a patent for using cellphone signals to determine where people are driving in their cars so traffic signals can be timed to reduce congestion. David Myr has invented a system that gathers location information from cellphone signals and uses mathematical formulas to calculate the travel times of those phones' owners as they drive along roads, through intersections, around corners and while waiting at lights. Those times can then be used to adjust traffic signals to ease vehicle flow. Mr. Myr received patent 6,539,300.

Not cool

Another inventor working on behalf of I.B.M. has won a patent for using
cellphone signals to alert drivers of the speed limit on the roads they are
using. Faisal M. Awada's invention uses a Global Positioning System receiver to
detect a cellphone location. It then looks up the speed limit for that location
in a database. The legal speed limit is transmitted to the car driver via his
cellphone speaker or display. The system can also compare the speed limit to the
driver's actual speed, and set off a warning if the driver is speeding. Mr.
Awada, of Round Rock, Tex., won patent 6,515,596.

Hat tip to SmartMobs.com