MIT's SENSEable City Lab is featuring a prototype of a futuristic bus stop, complete with real-time route mapping, e-ink surfaces, and estimates of your exposure to pollutants along the way.
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE:
"At the touch of a finger users can indicate their desired destination; the system will then display the shortest bus route from where they are and the position of all relevant buses real?time. The EyeStop will glow at different levels of intensity to signal the distance of an approaching bus. Riders and passers?by can also post
ads and community announcements to an electronic bulletin board placed on the bus stop, enhancing its functionality as a public space ? a place to gather and exchange community relevant information.
In addition to displaying information, the bus stop also acts as an active environmental sensing node, powering itself through sunlight and collecting real time information about air quality and the urban environment. "EyeStop is an experiment into urban computing: it may be considered an 'info?tape' that snakes through the city, rising up like a pole or cropping out of the sidewalk like a shelter. It senses information about the environment and distributes it in a form accessible to all citizens,"commented project leader Giovanni de
Niederhousern."
FULL STORY: EyeStop
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