About
TripSpin is like a compass for busses at the Majestic Bus Stop in Bangalore. The user inputs the destination they wish to travel to, and the light glows in the direction of the quickest available bus.
As the user moves, different lights glow depending on the position of the bus or the device in respect to the location of the bus. Once the user has reached the bus, all the lights of the device blink to indicate that the user has successfully reached their desired bus.
Prototype of Concept
Summary
Being a group project, work for TripSpin was done along with a teammate. Multiple field visits were conducted, for primary research, in order to fully understand the functioning of the bus system. After this, we mapped out our key insights and identified key issues. This followed the ideation process. Once we finalized the idea, I worked on form-exploration sketches and once we narrowed down on one, my teammate 3D modeled the same. Following this, we storyboarded the final idea. We then worked together on building a prototype using ultrasonic sensors and the Raspberry Pi microcontroller. For coding the sensors, I used the language, Python.
Process
Secondary Research
Majestic Bus Depot or Kempegowda Bus Stop is possibly the most crowded bus stop of Bangalore City. As a space, the Majestic Bus Stop is a very important part of Bangalore and the city’s heritage. The land used to be a huge lake, with a lot of people dependent on it. Later, when the lake dried, it is even rumored that Jawaharlal Nehru had given an independence speech here.
Moving forward in time, when Bangalore was getting viewed as a city that was developing rapidly, there was a massive influx from people from all parts of the country, in search of work. This is when Majestic served as a huge service to the masses. People could enter the city via the City Central Railway Station from any part of the country, and then walk across to the Majestic Bus Stop and take a bus to any part of the city. There even used to be a saying that went - 'If you are ever lost in the city, get on a bus to Majestic and you will find your way home.' Till today, Majestic sees a lot of commuters who are both locals as well as non-locals.
However, this does not come without its own set of problems, given the number of commuters, buses which have to take turns to park one after the other on 30 platforms and the inflow and outflow of buses. To find out more, we conducted a field visit for primary research.
Field Visit to Majestic Bus Depot
Ideation Phase
Key concept sketch describing the functionality
A render of the final concept
Having changed our concept to fit the time constraints better, it is made in a way to be placed at different spots all over Majestic. This would allow users easy ability to pick and drop in the premises. Since we have established that security is a big concern at Majestic, it is important that these devices do not get stolen. This is because one cannot keep producing unlimited numbers of the same, and doing so would only promote thefts. Thus, to protect the limited number of devices from the possibility of theft, we add a security tag to the same. An alarm would go off as soon as a theft is registered and thus will alert everyone in the vicinity.
Majestic is a large space and there are difficulties navigating and locating buses here. With the help of LED indicators, we make sure to direct the person in the direction of the quickest available bus. Lights in the direction of the bus start blinking, thus making it easier for someone to locate it over just being given a platform number.
As observed, a lot of people seem to ask the BMTC employees at the platforms where to board different buses by asking for the destination and not the bus number. Hence, it made more sense to allow users to input the place itself instead of looking for a particular numbered bus route. Once the place is input, user is redirected to the fastest available bus, which itself is beneficial to the user even if he had another route in mind.
The final concept design for TripSpin is a circular device with LEDs on all sides, that glow in the direction of the quickest available bus to the destination entered. The device is supposed to have a small touch based interface for selection of destination, and GPS modules installed in buses, and likewise an algorithm to map the location of the buses to the LEDs on the device, so that they blink according to the change in location of the bus as well as device. Usage of transmitter and receiver for sending and receiving signals would also be a part of the final model.
Storyboarding
Storyboard on how TripSpin works
However, for the purpose of the prototype, this was done on a smaller scale. The intention was to exhibit the working on a very small scale of the LEDs with respect to the buses. Thus, a make-do platform made of the breadboard,the pi and two ultrasonic sensors was made. These ultrasonic sensors are placed on either side of the breadboard, to indicate different sides of the platform where buses arrive. These sensors are coded in a way that the distance readings make different LEDs on different sides of the device glow, depending on if the bus is close, far or has been found. This is done via RGPIO and thus, would work anywhere as long as the connection to the given server/network is maintained. The device comprises of another Raspberry Pi connected to 4 LEDs, each indicating a side and distance from the platform. This is the device that glows when the bus is near, or far, and tells you what side of the platform it is on.
Thus, in the prototype, the device doesn’t help you locate the bus by the LEDs blinking in the direction the bus would move in, and the LEDs do not change as per the change in location of the device itself but instead changes with the proximity of the bus with the makeshift platforms. There is no GPS module used and ultrasonic sensor has been used instead along with small models of the buses. The prototype only helps locate a bus on a given platform based on its proximity. It does not show how the LEDs would work with a GPS module and how the display for the device would work, or the change in LEDs blinking once the device is taken in different
directions.
directions.
Prototyping
In order to get to the final prototype, we tried many smaller tests and experiments with the Raspberry Pi and the modules used. They can be seen below.
During a live demonstration
Our workspace
We also took this project forward and submitted it under the Late Breaking Work Track, for the IndiaHCI 2019 Conference that was hosted by IIIT Hyderabad. We were selected to present the same, during the conference.
Team TripSpin at IIIT Hyderabad, presenting at IndiaHCI 2019 Conference
Poster for the project submission in the Late-Breaking Work track at IndiaHCI 2019 Conference
A group project done by Srushti G and Calvin J Stanley.