<story><title>Why&apos;s that company so big? I could do that in a weekend</title><url>http://danluu.com/sounds-easy/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>systemtest</author><text>I recently had a discussion about how hard it would be to have a system inside a bus to announce the next stop. Sounds like a weekend project right?&lt;p&gt;Think a bit further:&lt;p&gt;- Hardware needs to be resistant to harsh diesel engine vibrations&lt;p&gt;- 3G&amp;#x2F;4G connectivity&lt;p&gt;- Need a mobile data contract with local ISP&lt;p&gt;- Software needs to be able to handle network disconnections&lt;p&gt;- GPS needs to be able to pin-point at which stop the bus is currently stopped, even with bad GPS coverage in larger cities&lt;p&gt;- If the bus skips a stop because of a detour, the software should be able to detect it and announce the next stop&lt;p&gt;- The announcement should be bi-lingual for Airport busses&lt;p&gt;- The announcement should work for people with hearing aids&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to know all bus-stops&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to know different stop types, such as bus terminals, intersection stops, regular stops, hand-over stops, virtual stops&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to be able both work of a yearly bus schedule and real-time update&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to output in an understandable JSON&amp;#x2F;XML because the government subsidies demand an open-data format&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to publish data to an open-data server because of the subsidies&lt;p&gt;- Because the bus-company is sponsored by European Union money the control interface should be translated to German&amp;#x2F;French&amp;#x2F;English&amp;#x2F;Spanish&lt;p&gt;And now this weekend project takes a team of 10 engineers working for a year.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>orf</author><text>All London buses do this. I don&amp;#x27;t think you need a server,  3G&amp;#x2F;4G connectivity or even GPS really. You might be over thinking it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why&apos;s that company so big? I could do that in a weekend</title><url>http://danluu.com/sounds-easy/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>systemtest</author><text>I recently had a discussion about how hard it would be to have a system inside a bus to announce the next stop. Sounds like a weekend project right?&lt;p&gt;Think a bit further:&lt;p&gt;- Hardware needs to be resistant to harsh diesel engine vibrations&lt;p&gt;- 3G&amp;#x2F;4G connectivity&lt;p&gt;- Need a mobile data contract with local ISP&lt;p&gt;- Software needs to be able to handle network disconnections&lt;p&gt;- GPS needs to be able to pin-point at which stop the bus is currently stopped, even with bad GPS coverage in larger cities&lt;p&gt;- If the bus skips a stop because of a detour, the software should be able to detect it and announce the next stop&lt;p&gt;- The announcement should be bi-lingual for Airport busses&lt;p&gt;- The announcement should work for people with hearing aids&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to know all bus-stops&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to know different stop types, such as bus terminals, intersection stops, regular stops, hand-over stops, virtual stops&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to be able both work of a yearly bus schedule and real-time update&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to output in an understandable JSON&amp;#x2F;XML because the government subsidies demand an open-data format&lt;p&gt;- Server needs to publish data to an open-data server because of the subsidies&lt;p&gt;- Because the bus-company is sponsored by European Union money the control interface should be translated to German&amp;#x2F;French&amp;#x2F;English&amp;#x2F;Spanish&lt;p&gt;And now this weekend project takes a team of 10 engineers working for a year.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>manyxcxi</author><text>The GPS and mobile data are overthinking it. The routes are known so simply trigger on door open&amp;#x2F;close (with some logic for denounce&amp;#x2F;etc) and cycle through.&lt;p&gt;For maximal accuracy simply have an electronic beacon of any sort broadcasting an ID that corresponds to the stop and you&amp;#x27;ve got it solved.&lt;p&gt;And the entire data set for the route should be able to live offline onboard the bus. Changing bus&amp;#x2F;numbers routes should include the step for updating route data.</text></comment>