I recently had a discussion about how hard it would be to have a system inside a bus to announce the next stop. Sounds like a weekend project right?
Think a bit further:
- Hardware needs to be resistant to harsh diesel engine vibrations
- 3G/4G connectivity
- Need a mobile data contract with local ISP
- Software needs to be able to handle network disconnections
- GPS needs to be able to pin-point at which stop the bus is currently stopped, even with bad GPS coverage in larger cities
- If the bus skips a stop because of a detour, the software should be able to detect it and announce the next stop
- The announcement should be bi-lingual for Airport busses
- The announcement should work for people with hearing aids
- Server needs to know all bus-stops
- Server needs to know different stop types, such as bus terminals, intersection stops, regular stops, hand-over stops, virtual stops
- Server needs to be able both work of a yearly bus schedule and real-time update
- Server needs to output in an understandable JSON/XML because the government subsidies demand an open-data format
- Server needs to publish data to an open-data server because of the subsidies
- Because the bus-company is sponsored by European Union money the control interface should be translated to German/French/English/Spanish
And now this weekend project takes a team of 10 engineers working for a year.
Think a bit further:
- Hardware needs to be resistant to harsh diesel engine vibrations
- 3G/4G connectivity
- Need a mobile data contract with local ISP
- Software needs to be able to handle network disconnections
- GPS needs to be able to pin-point at which stop the bus is currently stopped, even with bad GPS coverage in larger cities
- If the bus skips a stop because of a detour, the software should be able to detect it and announce the next stop
- The announcement should be bi-lingual for Airport busses
- The announcement should work for people with hearing aids
- Server needs to know all bus-stops
- Server needs to know different stop types, such as bus terminals, intersection stops, regular stops, hand-over stops, virtual stops
- Server needs to be able both work of a yearly bus schedule and real-time update
- Server needs to output in an understandable JSON/XML because the government subsidies demand an open-data format
- Server needs to publish data to an open-data server because of the subsidies
- Because the bus-company is sponsored by European Union money the control interface should be translated to German/French/English/Spanish
And now this weekend project takes a team of 10 engineers working for a year.