Project Beacons - Integration of Bluetooth Beacons into the Public Transport System of Vienna

Projects

Bluetooth Beacons

Evaluation of Bluetooth Beacons for the Public Transport System in Vienna

The beacon project was 0.5 year third-party funded research project funded by the Wiener Linien, who are responsible for the main public transport system in Vienna, Austria. The goal of this research project was an evaluation of existing bluetooth beacon technology and how it could be integrated in the existing infrastructure of the public transport system. For this, we developed several use cases and evaluated the technological feasibility and social responsibility. We conducted several live tests in subway stations, tram stations, and with a bus. Furthermore, we conducted workshops with several stakeholders to better understand the expectations towards the technology and needs they had.

Technologies Used.

Bluetooth

Java

Android

Media

A subway station in which we tested the Bluetooth signals.

Some of the tools we brought to the workshop, including pen and paper, Lego, miniature trams and buses, etc.

A workshop participant drawing his idea of how to integrate beacons into the public transport system of Vienna.
Here, he uses Lego blocks and modeling clay to create workers, where the yellow clay way used for construction site hats.

Our Bluetooth signal measuring app. On the left, it shows recognized beacons, their names, and the signal strength.
The camera stream is on the right of the app to record the context the app is used in.

A screenshot of one of our test videos where we walked around the station that had beacons installed. The video
shows additional information about current signal strength, beacon, distance, etc. as overlay.

We built another app that was able to detect which bus (and if the correct bus is closer or more far away)
in a multi bus station is in front, and which is in the back.