Problem Statement

How can we utilise technology to create an inclusive and accessible solution to improve the Visually-Impaired's (VI) experience in commuting via bus? 🤔

Proposed Solution

We, team Scooby, have developed a prototype that not only addresses the needs of the VI, but the inconveniences of the everyday commuter. Introducing SMART Bus Stop! Our design aims to improve the commuting experience of the VI, and at the same time everyone else's. The SMART Bus Stop design consists of two systems - the Arrival System and Person With Disability (PWD) Notifier. 🎯

The Arrival System employs RFID technology to notify all commuters in the bus stop of the incoming buses that are arriving the bus stop. There will be a RFID reader that reads tags from incoming buses, this is then transmitted to the speaker in the bus and then announced. 🎙️

Next, the PWD Notifier purpose is for the VI or anyone with a disability to input the number they wish to board, this alerts the incoming bus that there is a PWD that requires assistance in boarding the bus. This is further explained in the next section. 🚨

Further Details

This section will cover the technical of the systems that makes up the SMART Bus Stop:

1. Arrival System

The Arrival System consists of 3 major components, the speaker, RFID tag and reader. The speaker will be placed at the bus stop. Each bus will have an attached RFID tag that the reader will read. The tag will be placed at the centre of the base of the bus. The reader will be placed under the road, roughly 100-120m away from the next bus stop. This allows for commuters, especially the VI, to have ample time to prepare themselves to board the bus. When the bus drivers over the RFID reader, the tag will be scanned and a transmission will be sent to the speaker. The speaker will receive the transmission and announce the corresponding bus number that is arriving. 🛬

Optimal specifications: Active RFID system with UHF.

2. Person With Disability (PWD) Notifier

The PWD System consists mainly of 2 components as well - Selection for People of Disabilities (SPD) and the driver's dashboard. The SPD has a RFID scanner to verify a PWD is using it. After verification, the bus numbers' that stop at the bus stop will apply on the LCD. The PWD then selects which numbers he/she wishes to board and submits. Only the next bus that has the number chosen will receive the notification via the dashboard that there will be a PWD that requires assistance. On the dashboard, it will be displayed as per follows, "PWD at (incoming stop no.)". 🦯

Inspiration

Singapore is a revolutionary country with a revolutionary transport system, ranked 4th among cities such as Tokyo and Seoul. The Ministry of Transport has engineered such that our everyday MRT and bus stops are accessible to all our citizens. However, there is always room for improvement. 8 in 10 visually-impaired people agree that more can be done to travel more efficiently. 🚌

This made us wonder why, what about it was difficult? So we put ourselves in their shoes. Raeanne, member of team Scooby, would commute to a mall she would go to like any other day - except blindfolded. And the result? In spite of requiring much external assistance in identifying the incoming buses, she was successful. Although she was successful, she encountered issues where the commuters present were not considerate towards her and caused her to lose balance a number of times. 💪

The SMART Bus Stop's Speciality

When scaled up, bus arrival systems are able to detect the exact arrival times of incoming buses. By knowing the exact times, we can compare the difference between real-arrival timing to estimated arrival time provided by the LTA's Bus Arrival Time API. After accumulating the different arrival times, we can utilise Machine Learning to better predict the bus arrival timings, hence improving LTA's Bus Arrival Time API. ✨

Challenges

Assembling the aesthetic element of our prototype was difficult due to lack of working time and rush of assembling the aesthetic and hardware components together, but it was accomplished.
Realised speaker was only able to play musical notes and not audio files. However, we improvised to play a different music note for the different buses used.
Initially wanted to use a 4-digit LCD. However, due to time constraint, we were unable to properly wire and comprised with a 1-digit LCD. The 1-digit LCD is also only able to display up to 3 PWDs.
Last but not least, hardwire all the different hardware components, such as the speaker and 1-digit LCD, to a single arduino uno board was difficult. Despite that, we accomplished it by watching tutorials online on how we can hardwire it.