NimBus in the smart city: adding information displays to bus stops

In this article, you will find out how to use Wialon together with NimBus to transfer the necessary data to bus stops information displays. This solution is workable and useful though not very much widespread across the CIS countries. Besides, information displays are rarely connected to Wialon just yet.

GLONASS-SERVICE, the Gurtam partner based in St. Petersburg, created the solution for the Sosnovy Bor citizens, which made their life more comfortable. 

In 2018, Sosnovy Bor, a small town in Leningradsky region, was selected for the pilot smart cities project. The project priorities include transport along with public lighting and the “Safe city” system. We’re not sure whether the Wialon-based solution was a part of this project, but we definitely know that innovative regional projects are currently gaining ground.

We’ve already written about how GLONASS-SERVICE utilized Wialon during the FIFA World Cup 2018. The solution we are talking about today helped the town with 70-thousand population get access to helpful information displays as they have in Moscow and other large urban areas. 

Problem

Sosnovy Bor citizens wanted to know the buses’ relevant schedule, so to be on time for work or school and kindergarten with the kids. Instead, they had to settle with old small schedule plates at the stops that weren’t updated properly, of course. 

For many years, the town folks had to put up with such an inconvenience, which was especially hard for visually impaired passengers. To change the situation, several adjustments had to be made:

1. small plates should be replaced with information displays at the stops;
2. the schedule should be available for all categories of citizens;
3. people should have a real-time schedule.

Wialon and NimBus were a perfect solution for this challenge. To make the people's dream come true, GLONASS-SERVICE decided to integrate NimBus with displays at the bus stops.

Solution

Thus, they created the system transferring the actual time of bus arrival to the display. The carrier provided the integrator with the schedule allowing for configuring NimBus and Wialon. Then information displays were manually integrated with NimBus through a special script for data processing.

As for hardware, SMART S-2333 devices by Navtelecom were installed on-board while stops were equipped with LED information displays by ITLINE featuring automated messages.

Results

Gurtam partner equipped ten bus stops with information displays so far. These displays show the arrival time of the next bus, thus making the transport use easier and increasing the passengers’ quality of life. On top of that, the process of taking a bus became more comfortable for visually impaired passengers, as the recorded announcement system voices the text on the display.

A small reminder: you can integrate the information display through the NimBus API using the data sent from the web application in JSON format.

With our SDK and API, you can also create Wialon-based solutions of any complexity.

Discover how Gurtam partners implement Wialon in various areas and contact us at marketing@gurtam.com if you want to share your projects.