Do the Busstop!

MIT architects and engineers have unveiled EyeStop, an interactive bus stop designed for the city of Florence.

On Saturday 16 May the project will be presented officially at the Genio Fiorentino by the President of the Province of Florence Matteo Renzi (dubbed ‘The Italian Obama’ by TIME Magazine).

EyeStop, developed by MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, is an exploration into the next generation of smart urban furniture; it aims to enrich the city with state of the art sensing technologies, interactive services, community information and entertainment. The project is partially covered with touch sensitive e‐INK and screens, so that it can deliver information to people seamlessly. Users can plan a bus trip on an interactive map, exchange community‐relevant information on a digital message board, surf the web, monitor their real time exposure to pollutants and use their mobile devices as an interface with the bus shelter. “Interacting with EyeStop could
change the access to urban information in a similar way to how the iPhone has changed our mobile life” commented Carlo Ratti, Head of the SENSEable City Lab at MIT.

At the touch of a finger users can indicate their desired destination; the system will then display the shortestbus route from where they are and the position of all relevant buses real‐time. The EyeStop will glow atdifferent levels of intensity to signal the distance of an approaching bus. Riders and passers‐by can also postads and community announcements to an electronic bulletin board placed on the bus stop, enhancing itsfunctionality 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, poweringitself 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 thecity, rising up like a pole or cropping out of the sidewalk like a shelter. It senses information about theenvironment and distributes it in a form accessible to all citizens” – commented project leader Giovanni deNiederhousern.

A generative parametric model produces a unique design for each bus stop, providing both optimal shelteringfor users and maximum sunlight exposure for direct photovoltaic powering. Unlike the typical mass‐producedbus stop, EyeStop is designed to fit the physical characteristics of its surroundings, with each unit being slightlydifferent from the others. Furthermore, simple materials like shiny steel, extra clear glass and gray local stone(pietra serena), together with its minimalist design, serve to optimize how it blends into the historic urbanfabric of Florence.

EyeStop was developed at the SENSEable City Laboratory by Giovanni de Niederhousern, Shaocong Zhou, AssafBiderman and Carlo Ratti, in collaboration with the Province of Florence and the local public transportationauthority ATAF.

(source)