User Terminal Optical Waiting Time Display for Transportation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional smartphones are not suitable for all users due to high purchase and operational costs, and they can be difficult for visually impaired, elderly, or non-technically minded individuals to use, especially in ordering and navigating transportation services, which limits the effectiveness of shared transportation concepts in reducing traffic density.
Innovation Solution
A user terminal that uses simple, robust hardware and optical communication via light signals to order and track transportation vehicles, allowing users to send for a vehicle without needing to read or understand complex information, using a server to manage communication and provide estimated arrival times displayed through LED illuminations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional smartphones are used for ordering transportation vehicles, then functionality and communication capabilities are improved, but device complexity and ease of operation deteriorate for visually impaired, elderly, or non-technically minded individuals
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential function of ordering a transportation vehicle from the complex smartphone interface, isolating it into a dedicated actuation device with a single push-button. This extraction removes unnecessary complexity while preserving the core functionality, making it accessible to users with visual, cognitive, or technical limitations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a simple, inexpensive actuation device that can be a basic button or even a disposable remote control, eliminating the need for expensive smartphones. This approach prioritizes accessibility and low cost over advanced features, enabling broader user participation in shared transportation services.
2Adaptability or versatility
If conventional smartphones are used for ordering transportation vehicles, then communication capabilities are improved, but purchase and operational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive smartphones with inexpensive actuation devices such as simple buttons or disposable remotes. This substitution dramatically reduces both purchase and operational costs while maintaining sufficient communication capabilities through wireless messaging to the service provider's server.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses wireless communication to transmit ordering information and receive confirmation messages without requiring expensive hardware. The system copies the essential communication function from smartphone apps into a simplified protocol that works with basic devices, reducing costs while preserving functionality.
3Loss of information
If complex information display is used to show waiting time, then information precision is improved, but ease of operation and accessibility deteriorate for users with sensory or cognitive limitations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses color changes in LED illuminants to convey waiting time information. Different colors or illumination patterns represent different time ranges, providing intuitive visual feedback that is easily distinguishable for users with cognitive or sensory limitations, while maintaining precise information transmission.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs periodic illumination patterns of LEDs to indicate waiting time. The illuminants can flash or change states in regular intervals that correspond to time ranges, creating an intuitive temporal representation that is easily perceived and understood by all users regardless of their technical or sensory capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A user terminal, a transportation vehicle, a server, a computer program product, a signal sequence and a method for sending for a transportation vehicle. The method includes receiving user input entered using an actuation device of a user terminal, sending a wireless message, assigning the transportation vehicle to the user terminal in response to the receipt of the wireless message, determining an expected arrival time and/or interval until the arrival of the transportation vehicle at the user terminal, and displaying a waiting time determined based on the arrival time or interval by a number of luminescent light predefined for the display of the waiting time and/or a number per time unit of light to be activated or deactivated, and/or a position of a luminescent light of the user terminal.