Construction of my bus seating device was commenced today. I went to reverse garbage this morning to get inspiration and try to find appropriate materials for my design. I wanted this device to be mounted on the wall so I needed the display to be non-obtrusive and blend in with whatever it is to be mounted on. Clear acrylic seemed to be the most appropriate and manageable material for this. I have constructed a thin rectangular acrylic box with a tube coming out of the bottom. An image of the interior of a BCC bus will be printed on the front of the acrylic box. Coloured liquid will fill the inside of the box and be visible through cut-outs of the seats on the bus. The liquid is pumped into the seat display via a positive displacement pump that will run off our step-motor. The step-motor will communicate with the bus’s computer to find the number of people on the bus. So if the bus is full and no seats are available, the box would be filled with liquid, showing that all of the seats are taken.
(images to come)
Because of the small diameter of the tube that fills the acrylic box with fluid, it takes quite a while to change the level of the liquid. Because of this I have thought of a way to minimise the amount of liquid in the display. I will silicon all the non visible areas of the hollow box, leaving a narrow path for the fluid to flow through. This will enable the display to very quickly change the number of seats availably (level of liquid).
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