One of the requirements, identified during consultations with students was the need for Latrobe specific public transport information. LTU runs a free campus bus at the Bundoora campus. The bus runs to a static timetable. With the advent of relatively cheap hardware for the burgeoning “Internet of Things” market it is now possible to create a real time departure time system. Data from this system could be exposed via the student portal.
The system would operate in this manner:
Bluetooth beacons will be installed at every bus stop. A low cost wi-fi / bluetooth device –perhaps Raspberry PI will be installed on the Glider bus. When the bus is in range of a stop the onboard device will read a stop id on the Bluetooth beacon at the stop. The device will then send the id and time via wi-fi network to a server which will take the data received and interpolate bus departure times for subsequent stops. The server will expose the interpolated departure times as a JSON file via a web service. The JSON data will be consumed by a widget in the student portal. Students will be able to look at the departure times on their phone.