Drop Cendu
A visual information board representing the activity of the buses at the iconic Majestic Bus Station in Bangalore
Team: Vanshika Sanghi, Rashi Balachandran and Sohayainder Kaur
Brief: To look into the future of Majestic Bus Station​​ through the lens of Tangible Computing.
Overview
What is Drop Cendu?
Drop Cendu is a device that displays information about the bus activity at the bus stop. It is the complete visualization of data without any screen-based or text-based interaction.
It creates an easier and more comprehensive way to read information, especially at a crowded and confusing bus station like the Majestic Bus Station in Bangalore. It is put together through tangible computing appliances and with the help of a raspberry pi. It makes the experience of catching a bus less stressful and more informed.
The word cendu, means all in Kannada the local language in Bangalore.
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Research
Objectives
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To observe traffic and crowds - both vehicular and pedestrian.
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To map out stakeholders and their respective impact
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Look at safety for women and children
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Accessibility for the elderly and differently-abled
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The extent of technology usage and reliance.
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To look at the layout and organization of the bus station and its neighboring facilities and find ways to map it.
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Variety of facilities are offered at the bus station.
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Research Plan
Primary Research:
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1. Unstructured Observation: To give us an unbiased broader understanding and notice issues from on-lookers' perspectives that otherwise go unnoticed.
2. Interviews: To map out stakeholders, confirm existing issues, and get an insider's perspective.
3. Ethnographic research: To get an on-ground and first-hand understanding of the context.
Secondary Research:
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Majestic is widely used and one person's experience is insufficient to map out larger issues hence, we were exploring broader perspectives.
Insights
Research Insights
The layout is poorly planned and isn’t built to handle the huge intensity of crowds and buses.
There is a high possibility of a mishap or confusion due to the inaccurate bus timings and heavy foot traffic.
Layout
Navigation:
Stakeholders and Facilities:
Traffic and Crowd:
Safety is a major issue that is ignored. There should be more authorities /systems for crowd control and safety.
There is no crowd control, and time scheduled for buses are not followed.
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There are traffic congestions at the entry and exit.
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The different parts of Majestic, i.e, the metro station, KSRTC, and BMTC are not interconnected.
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Finding paths from one platform to another is hard since it’s not well connected which can also pose a safety threat, however, attempts have been made to make it orderly.
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The model of the layout is ineffective and results in more chaos.
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Locating a particular bus is hard unless you’re a regular since the boards are inaccurate. It’s harder for a first-timer plus it takes a lot of time.
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Regulars too have a hard time boarding buses due to the large crowds and irregular timing of buses.
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There is no orderly way of movement which causes a lot of chaos and wastage of time.
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Safety as a concern seems to be ignored.
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There aren’t enough authorities to deal with passenger issues.
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No security of any kind is available.
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Street vendors are present at major intersections and cause movement delay.
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The waiting bays are highly disorganized and crowded since most of the space is taken up by benches, pillars and small eateries .
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Rules are taken too casualy, especially Bus Passes.
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There is no limit of the number of passengers entering a bus which causes uncomfortable and crammed journeys.
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Since it’s a centralized location, traffic comes from all sides of Bangalore which causes congestion and delays the arrival and
the departure of buses at the bus bay. -
People are accustomed to the heavy crowds and chaos and seem unfazed even if it is an inconvenience.
Extent of Technology:
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Technology isn’t widely used at the bus station.
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The only use of technology present is used to display ads - hence users generally ignore these screens. However, these could be a good source to display relevant information, in an orderly fashion.
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People are in a huge rush and thus integration of technology must be un obstructive and intuitive.
The integration of technology should be un-obstructive and intuitive due to the busy nature of the station.
LAYOUT AND NAVIGATION
The current navigation system established at the Majestic Bus Station is not followed by the buses or users. Thus turning out to be hard to navigate for 1st time passengers. Due to the lack of any maps on the platform or personal assistance the organization becomes an issue. It’s not accessible for all. The crowd flow is too high, which causes safety issues and theft.
Ideation and Brainstorming
The aim while doing ideation was to explore how well can tangible and digital overlap. Before starting our brainstorming exercise we mapped out “Things to think about” . Like the kind of everyday activities associated with a bus stop and the stakeholders. This was done to provide triggers if necessary while generating ideas.
Key Ideas
Ball information Board
A way to visually map the number of buses coming and going, time duration between buses, a way to get alerted on current buses and also to know the crowd inside the bus itself, aiding organization and management. A way to visually map the number of buses coming and going, time duration between buses, a way to get alerted on current buses and also to know the crowd inside the bus itself, aiding organization and management.
Floor Marking
Floor Marking on the surfaces of the Majestic Bus Station which could help in navigating and finding the correct bus to take. These floor markings would depend on live tracking of the buses when they arrive at the particular platform.
Navigation Ropes / Fixed Booths
A path from the entry to the bus that is custom made for you and changed according to where you wanted to go. (Inspired from the magic stairwell in Harry Potter) What if according to bus times a path would open helping in navigation, crowd flow management as well as organisation. There will be fixed booths for certain paths which will help the user know where to stop and board the bus.
Movable Traffic Light
What if you could look at a map, pick a square from destination and choose any one of the many routes to undertake? Providing the user with a token/card which is entirely digital and helps in navigations, tells the bus time and gives feedback when the bus has arrived for that route.
Movable Traffic Light
Imagine if a traffic light could move around and aid in helping with heavy crowd flow for pedestrians as well as buses.
Sensor / Pole
A sensor/the pole on the bus (since the pole is touched to board the bus) informing us about how many people board the bus. If the capacity is full the shutters of the bus close. This could be a way of input of information from the user which could be used for other tasks.
Final Concept
Drop Cendu - A live bus tracking information board
To choose a concept, the C-box exercise was conducted in order to remove biases. This helped us narrow down to two ideas which we clubbed together to form our final concept.
DROP CENDU
How does it work?
Concept Diagrams:
Overview
Service Blueprint
Key Use Cases
Concept
Fig1.
Fig2.
Fig3.
Fig4.
The drop Cendu box is present on all the platforms (Fig1.). It displays information about the buses making a stop on that platform specifically (Fig2.). There is also present a walkway bridge that people use to navigate across the bus station avoiding the buses paths. There , there is a large digital display which shows the map of the Majestic Bus Stop marking all the bays and platforms. (Fig3.) Here one can see all the movements of the buses presently at the station.
On the front of the walkway facing the platforms and buses is displayed the arrival and departure of all buses will colorizing and de - colorizing balls to make sure nobody misses their bus.(Fig4.)
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Insight
The platform waiting areas are crowded since there are users waiting for multiple different buses and are unsure of their arrival time.
Concept
The arrival time for specific buses is accurately known and displayed so people know not to wait at the platform pointlessly and can occupy other areas.
There is currently no cohesive data or display system at the Bus Stop
The concept depicts all bus timing related information, based on real-time data, in one place.
Irregular/predictive bus timings displayed on BMTC information board
This visualization of data is abstracted to show accurate values.
Overcrowding of buses
Bus doors automatically close once the system registers that the limit on the number of people that can enter the bus has been reached.
Bus schedule is not currently followed by the buses
The live tracking of buses accurate, real-time timings instead of the expected.
There is a lot of chaos and pushing while boarding and queuing for the bus
There are visuals that show the real-time filling up of the bus to deter pushing and avoid chaos.
Implications
• In the larger context of Majestic Bus Station, this concept displays information relating to bus arrival times, wait times, and frequency to make the waiting and boarding experience better.
• It reduces the overall anxiety of waiting for a bus with uncertain timings, and thus the anxiety of missing the bus.
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• It leads to the complete eradication of the inaccurate bus system as a whole, as eventually the information system works by analyzing trends, then analyzing and predicting them.
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• It depicts an accurate arrival time and thus helps with time management for both the users, and the systems of the bus station.
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• It creates a more organized waiting area, as only people anticipating the upcoming bus wait at the platform, and there isn’t much uncertainty or people waiting for multiple buses - thus there is less rush and confusion.
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• It gives BMTC more statistics and data on the daily traffic, to notice patterns in crowd flow. This will eventually lead to better measures to handle crowds and traffic.
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Technology
The technology used to make this product was through tangible sensors and a raspberry pi, it displays live time information through the sensors we used which all work cohesively through the commands given through the raspberry pi.
Components required
LED's
x6
Button's
x2
Servo Motor
x2
Buzzer
x1
Load Sensor​
x1(ideally)
Jumper Cables
XA LOT
Infrared Sensor
X1
Circuit Diagram
Working Prototype
Using Tangible bits (Raspberry Pi), we decided to make our prototype, we tried all different methods of making throughout the process. We started my rapid prototyping by using whatever we found around us and tried to make it functionally by adding digital components listed above to make a working prototype. This took a lot of trial and error and 'jugaad' since we were trying to use a few basic sensors and putting them to multiple other uses in order to fulfill our requirements.
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The functionalities shown in the prototype are-
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Bus arriving at the Majestic Bus Station and the ball dropping because of it.
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The ball colorizing based on the number of people entering the bus.
Final working prototype
All the displays are shown through this video
Feedback
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The design isn’t entirely inclusive as the whole visual and colour aspect doesn't include blind, and colour blind people.
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People are accustomed to the existing system of bus numbers, and revamping the entire system to colours could throw people off and not everyone knows how to interpret abstracted visual information. The large number of buses would also require a large number of colours and this could get confusing.
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A scale reference to understand the time intervals between balls would be useful so people can get more accurate information about waiting time.
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Different people have different priorities and this information might not be vital and useful to all kinds of users.
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More familiar colours should be used to guide people, for example red, yellow, green, for stop, go, and wait.
Progress and Documentation
