Final Presentation

Here is the final proto-type for our bus stop design. Unfortunately after slaving away for days on the electronic components, we were unable to get the circuitry how we wanted it to run. It would have been really cool if we could have used our device at the final presentation, but we were able create some basic images in illustrator to further explain the poles abilities and functions.

  

I have really enjoyed working with my teammates Pat and Ned over this semester. I feel we worked coherently together and got our design to the best possible for the time we had available. Two things I’ve learned from this project are to manage my time more strictly and consistently record and organise all work conducted on projects.

Moldy Puzzle

Pat came up with a brilliant idea for a quick and easy manufacturing technique to produce the route shape for individual poles. Because every route will have a different map, we had to think of an easy way to manufacture the different route shapes using one machine. Pat's idea involves a series of steal puzzle pieces that all have specific sizes and fit together on a vacuum molding table.

New Model

Our previous idea for the model was soon disregarded as it was far to labour intensive and we were unable to come up with a way of easily bending the laser-cut acrylic with the tools we had access to. After discussion with Tim and Yasu we have come up with a new way of creating our model which seems plausible in a real life manufacturing situation.


The route display will be made of several layers of laser-cut acrylic which house the L.E.D's, sensors, transmitters etc. The wires and other electrical components will be encased in a vacuum molded semi-circle PVC (or similar) tube which covers the entire back half of the pole.

Travel Buddy

With the design of the pole coming to a freeze, we discussed the meaning and intentions of the pole with our tutors. Yasu pointed out that although our design is great and caters to all users' needs, we still needed more interactive communication between the pole users. So we came up with Travel Buddy.

Basically Travel Buddy is an incorporated feature that allows commuters at bus stops to check weather a friend is on their route. Friends will appear as a red flashing L.E.D at their current position. To active Travel Buddy all commuters have to do is simply swipe their go-card on the designated area on the pole.

Scenario Networking

Interaction

Recently we have spent a lot of time concentrating on the functionality and appearance of the pole, now that we are happy with the design we can look into the interaction between the bus driver, user and twitter.


By using the route display, people at bus stops will be communicating indirectly with; bus driver (when bus is selected at stop, alert is sent to driver), other stop patrons (by leaving their chosen route displayed on pole) and twitter pages (twitter page for each bus will show delays, accidents, number of occupants on bus and its location).

The bus driver communicates with; twitter page (using an on-board computer), people at the bus stop (through the L.E.D. position on the pole) and the patrons already aboard the bus.


The people on the bus communicate with; people at the stop and twitter. This is done indirectly thru just being on the bus.

Pole Dilemma's

We met in Pat's garage on Saturday to begin construction of our lo-fi model. We are making it full scale to get a better understanding of how big it should be and we can test how users will be using it.


Pine wood is used as the internal structure of the model. All the electronics (L.E.D's, wires, sensors and power) will be secured into cut-outs in the ply, which will be covered by a semi-translucent piece of acrylic. The acrylic will cover all the routes on the pole and will bend around the edges of the ply, allowing the light from the L.E.D's to refract around the sides of the pole.


- Insert Photo of Model -


It will obviously not be a full working prototype as we don't possess the necessary skills, knowledge and tools. The most we will be able to display is; the selecting of one destination and the distance between your stop and the bus coming. This should quite clearly show the intent of our design.