Loading...

Modern Bus Stops


Research

Starting from a personal complaint, which gained support from family, friends, and peers. No-one likes waiting for a bus, especially the elderly, or those who live in areas with limited service where missing the bus can result in a ruined day.

Coding

RFID readers haven't been used on such a large scale outside of commercial use. As a result of this, the code for the project was a horror to write as I had no reference points or examples to follow. The code was above and beyond the hardest aspect of this project.

Production

With the complex Arduino code and circuitry, and the Proccessing outputs I wanted an equally large scale build. Resulting in a 2 meter square project. Testing my physical prototyping skills.

  • Slider Image
  • Slider Image
  • Slider Image

Bus ReBranding

The buses I bought were branded as “Hawaii Buses”. Whilst the shape was consistent enough with a standard bus, the patterns and colours were not. To fix this, I used a simple can of red spray paint which could be applied to plastic. Doing so created a “London Bus” aesthetic which is more applicable for the project.


Creating Screen Visuals

I had two options for the map display. Either using a map of Newcastle and an actual bus route. This would add an element of realism to the project, however the correlation between physical bus location and the icon on the digital map would be unclear. With this in mind I decided to use the layout of the cartoon map on the digital map. This would allow for instant understanding of the bus location on the carpet and on the screen. With this, I had to find a way to create a digital version of the carpet, either in the Adobe Suite or by taking a photograph of it. Due to time constraints, I chose to take a photograph thinking this would be the easiest, and quickest option.


Displaying The Visuals

Rather than just simply having an iPad on a table, or stand, I wanted to display it in a better format. To do this, i thought of creating a frame to hold the iPad, and allow for mounting on a wall to mimic what it could be like at an actual bus stop. However, whilst I initially planned on creating the frame from scratch, I found a picture frame which was the near perfect size to house the iPad, only needing a few small wooden inserts to hold it in place. This drastically decreased the time it would have taken to create something like it, as well as increasing the quality.