乡间车站信息终端“IT稻草人”的开发[1]

篇名：Development of Information Terminal “IT scarecrow” for Rural Station

中文名：乡间车站信息终端“IT稻草人”的开发

作者：Fuminori Tsunoda, Go Yanagisawa etc.

来源：ACM（美国计算机学会）

 

Abstract This paper explains the development of an information terminal for a rural station and its background system. The information terminal, which we call ‘IT scarecrow’, displays traffic information based on a train location system. It is designed like a scarecrow to blend into a rural station. The service the system provides depends mainly on passengers’ surveys and discussions with the rural community. In addition, we tried to make the system at low cost. In the spring of 2007, we made some preliminary system tests followed by an experiment in an actual station. As a result, we learned what the critical conditions for the next implementation should be. The IT scarecrow is consulted as a representative of communication between a railway and a local community. We hope the system will expand and also that it be implemented as a mobile guidance system.     Keywords Design, Information Design, Public Transportation, Mobile Phone, GPS   Introduction Railways have penetrated society as indispensable public transportation, especially in Europe and Asia. The more people become conscious of environmental problems, the more important the role of the railway will be. On the other hand, to continue, the railway needs a certain number of passengers because the railway was originally adapted as a mass transit system. Therefore, it needs a proper balance between cost and providing service. In this paper, we propose a plain and low-cost information service for a rural railway station. Specifically, we developed the information terminal, called “IT scarecrow,” which is designed to blend into a rural station. The terminal is not only symbolic of the rural station, but also useful for passengers; it provides the train location based on an information management system using a mobile phone-equipped GPS locator. The information relieves passengers’ concerns about whether the train is delayed or not. Therefore, passengers can use their time more efficiently.     Background and Goals We had done a survey of passengers using rural stations before we developed the system. The important findings of the survey are that 40 percent of passengers felt unsafe about the rural station and that 30 percent of them considered the train to be inconvenient because of insufficient schedule information at the station. In addition, we had a discussion with volunteers who sometimes manage the station. They rarely had accurate information about whether the train was delayed. We set three goals for the development, based on the above survey and discussions: