GERMANY: SmartWindow technology for displaying live and context-based journey information on vehicle windows is being tested on a tram-train operated by AVG in Karlsruhe.
The six-month trial starting this month will be used to assess the situations under which passengers will interact with the SmartWindow, which can display information such as a route map, connection information or points of interest along the route. More personalised information can be accessed through a smartphone app.
The SmartMMI project is led by Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences and funded with €2·86m from the Federal Ministry for Transport & Digital Infrastructure’s mFund initiative
Other partners are passenger information systems supplier Annax and software companies Mentz and USU Software, supported by Karlsruhe’s local transport authorities and Hübner, which has supplied the glass panes and frames and assembled the components.
‘We want to make transparent display technologies a tangible reality for public transport passengers’, said Professor Schlegel, who is co-ordinating the project as head of the university’s Institute for Ubiquitous Mobility Systems. ’Up-to-date and highly relevant information will then find its way directly to passengers — and make public transport more attractive.’
