(SmoPuTraNet)

ON DEVELOPMENT DRAFT
(i dare you to find a better name.)

NOTE: this was first published on the restatemedia.net blog. but since this blog intends tobe my personal notebook i’ll place a copy here as well.
The purpose of these networked set systems is to provide a smoother use of public transport system in Monterrey, taking advantage of emerging Technologies, which we hope when the times come to develop the project, they would have reached a mature stage.

The solution network consists in the connections between mobile devices, enhanced translucid displays on driver’s front glass and advanced rich interface terminals in each bus stop as client applications for mobile devices. This deployed in such a way, that users might access relevant and even personalized profiled information of different bus routes in real time and request service, from rich terminals and their mobile devices.
Ok lets dig it, this terminal window is placed in each bus stop, replacing those ugly advertsising poster that they put on these days. both sided for multiple use or fot different information display. lets make up an example shall we ?

So here come little Timmy again, ready to take a bus, for he’s going stumbling to the other corner of the town with Jimmy. When he arrives to the bus stop he sees this big screen infront of him where once layed a big Tecate adverstisment of a blonde showing off her ass. and little Timmy goes WOOOW, (for the screen not for the blonde’s ass).

The first thing he sees is a map of town in the center, where little dots of different with colors are moving around the streets, this dots represent the available buses within town. But hey, they are to many dotties in there, Timmy only wants to see routes that pass way his current street or that pass over Jimmy’s place. So he choses from the map which colors he wants to see and all other dissapear. “Whoa” says Timmy, but he is not sattisfied yet, he wants precise information, so he presses to point on the map, and automatically the system tells Timmy which bus(es) he should take to get to Jimmy’s place. with routes on streets and everything.

Now that the system told Timmy which bus(es) he needs to take, it asks if he wants to stop the next bus that will arrive. sweet hugh ? now each time he wants to take a bus to Jimmy’s he will only approach the terminal and request the next bus of his bus to stop.

Since the Terminal knows the position of the next bus Timmy wants to take, it also tells jimmy how much time should it take for it to arrive so he can now, focus on the opentv channel thats on the upper corner of the terminal, which is managed as an open programming (read about philosophy and democratic relevance) OR he could read the news ticker with local context relevance that’s displaying open news.

Just before, he get’s on the bus the terminal asks if he wants to download the route he needs to take to his mobile (phone, ipod, psp etc…) because Timmy doesn’t know very well that part of town he agrees, now Timmy will get a notification few blocks before he has to: descend / take another bus etc. so there’s no way he gets lost.

So at the end of day, Timmy has acquired some urban knowledge, has maps of the city on his mobile, got relevant information from the news and didnt had to take a bad service from buses not stoping.

So lets now go to the other side of the glass, the drivers front view…

Mr. Tim, (a.k.a. “El Chofer”) has now a super cool front glass on his bus, with a translucid display, which displays some pretty icons on the left side. each of this icons has a different meaning, such as. “Stop on the next station, I want to get down”, “Stop, on the next station, Timmy has requested to get on board”, “Wow, slow down you are about to get a ticket”, “current time is”, “you should be at the next bus stop in X minutes”. etc etc.

So now the driver can get instant feedback from both, current passangers and people who want to get on board, if we combine this display with some intelligent traffic systems, and relevance engines, driving experience can get pretty much improved.

After wards, this display can be developed as a generic sheet to stick on any car, so you mash up the terminal display and the drivers notification to create an intelligent traffic system, with unique profile based, news notifications, driving directions and town maps and… ok ok ok i’m sorry I got carried away, that’s another post.

So how do we build all this stuff, its practically technological speaking, possible to create such solution,

The Rich Terminal Wall

1. Open news ticker pane / traffic report
2. Open TV pane
3. Local weather pane
4. Maps pane (main)
a. Search point of parting and destination
b. Single (or several routes) map
c. Complete city map

5. Menu (sidebar pane)
6. Route selection pane
a. Scrollable list of routes (with RS. Button)
b. Route review and info
c. Next bus Specific Information.
d. RS (Request Stop) Button

7. Virtual Keyboard, like the ones for cellphones the infrared light ones not those ugly on display ones.

8. WiFi Router to distribute free internet on the local area. this internet could be fed via underground adsl lines of telmex… or not.

Notes:
view Light Blue Optics of Cambridge for holographic alternative

The Translucid Display

(Drivers Front Glass)

Driver must be able to maintain his/hers focus on the street, this days a driver must both drive and charge passengers, activities that are normally done simultaneously, there for adding extra distractions is absolutely out of place.

1. Clock
2. Min. left to arrive to next bus stop
3. Current Speed - notification of exceeds
4. Passenger Download Notification
5. Passenger Upload Notification
6. Msg Pane / Vehicle Dashboard (view separate project)
7. Night Vision Display, these should be a cheaper version of those nice displays on bmw’s

The Mobil Client

* Flash for Phones
* PSP’s
* Portable Media Players

The Communication Network Infrastructure

(GSM / CDMA – GPS - WiFi)

The Engines

Profilium’s Relevance Engine
Restate Media’s Mobile Engines
JiTiK