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Researchers from MIT and Princeton have developed a smartphone application called "SignalGuru" that uses the camera from a dashboard-mounted smartphone to capture images of traffic lights. Once the images are captured, they're analyzed to detect whether the lights are green, yellow or red and then that data is passed along to other nearby SignalGuru users.

Using the resulting data, the app can relay to a particular driver how quickly he or she will need to drive in order to make the next light. If the next light is already red, the driver can coast up to it slowly instead.

(MORE: IBM Wants to Improve Your Commute With Traffic Prediction)

The researchers tested the app in Singapore, which uses dynamic traffic lights that change based on traffic levels and in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which uses dumb, old timed traffic lights spawned from the loins of none other than Satan himself (I live near Cambridge, believe it or not).

The results, according to MIT:

"By reducing the need to idle and accelerate from a standstill, the system saves gas: In tests conducted in Cambridge, Mass., it helped drivers cut fuel consumption by 20 percent."

That's pretty incredible, considering it requires no additional modifications to the car itself.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Hurricane Irene left 27 people dead, 3 million customers without power and potentially billions of dollars in damage from flooding and wind.

But the economic damage could have been a lot worse, experts said.

"It was much less bite than bark," said Matt Carletti, specialty insurance analyst at JMP Securities. "Rounding up, it's a $10 billion event, not 20 or 30 or 40."

Hurricane damage could total $7 billion, according to Kinetic Analysis Corp., which estimates the impact of natural and man-made disasters on the economy. Less than half of that -- some $3 billion -- will be covered by insurance, the company said.

Eqecat, a catastrophe risk-modeling firm, said that South and North Carolina suffered between $200 million and $400 million in insured losses. And the Caribbean -- including the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and Puerto Rico -- suffered damage ranging from $300 million to $600 million.

"Certainly, the storm was, in terms of damage and losses, less than expected," said Jose Miranda, director of client advocacy for Eqecat. "The fact that the storm hit the U.S. coast three separate times served as the number one factor why it weakened as it moved up the East Coast and mitigated losses."
Damage estimates roll in

As of Monday morning, Vermont seemed to bear the brunt of flood damage from the hurricane, with some towns in the southern part of the state entirely covered by water.