Project 'VriendenOV':

A demonstration of a possible 'future' mobile application.

On the one hand computers become so small that are wearable. On the other hand the hardware to know where you are becomes payable. This gives the possibilities to think of many new applications which become possible.

The original description of the project can be found here. After the start of the project one application directly popped up. This application was the exchange of the actual status of the public transport network.

As source we used the travellers themselves, as you can read in the (Dutch) description. This application can already be build with existing hardware, as you can see at the site.

Our experiences with this demonstrator showed that position information is very convenient to make an user friendly application (by reducing the information that the user has to provide before or during the trip). It also showed that the existing hardware (GPS) is not the right equipment for a traveller in the public transport, because a GPS needs an open view to the sky. Inside stations, trains, etc, the signal from the GPS-satilites is too weak.

This means that for this application one has to wait till position information is made available via the cellular phone network.

The work was finalized with the following Msc thesis 'Vrienden OV - Een demonstratie van een mogelijke mobiele toepassing', Mathieu Hommes, Universiteit van Amsterdam, May 2001.