Chennai: Here’s some good news for outsiders to the city. Now with the help of an app called Bumble B those new to the city can find out details of bus routes and stops. The app is the brainchild of IIT and Anna university students and working professionals from HCL.
According to Hari Santosh V from Anna University, the Bumble B application will help navigate to local bus stops for those not familiar with Chennai as well as its residents.
Not everyone knows all bus numbers and routes. People often depend on others or check with conductors. “Often it happens that people from outside Chennai can’t communicate with conductors or the local people. So the app will be very helpful for them,” he said.
Citing an example, he said that 27 C goes from Broadway to T Nagar and there is another bus 27 D which goes from Broadway to Kelambakkam. Newcomers to the city may get confused. “On installing Bumble B, the person has to wait for buses towards his destination and if the buses are around the vicinity of around 75 meters, he will get the notification of a bus which will go to the area. It also gives details about the route of that particular bus,” he said. The app also works in offline mode, said Renju P.B., a student of IIT Madras.
“Even if there are multiple buses in the same area, all buses will transmit information as bluetooth beacon technology will be attached to all buses. The phone of the users will be interpreting information coming from all the buses.
Only the particular bus going to the area the user wants to get to will come in the notification.” He added that in future GPS system would also be included.
Tamil Vannan K, a HCL professional, said, “By March we are trying to get the hardware prototype. As beacon technology is expensive so currently it will cost around Rs 1,000. But we are trying to bring down the cost to Rs 450.”
