In a collaboration between the departments of multimedia and industrial design - we were tasked with designing a product or system for the smart city of Johannesburg in 2030 based on the topic of 'learning'. We identified that an opportunity for learning in Johannesburg is to be able to navigate and learn about the public transport system.

The taxi system in particular, is largely undocumented and relies heavily on local knowledge and experience to navigate - insider knowledge such as hand signals are one small aspect. The biggest current challenge, however, is knowing where and when to onboard public transport, and especially which public transport system or taxis to board in order to get to where you are going.

Our solution is a smart-glasses sharing system. Our system comprises of shared smart augmented reality glasses, physical collection and return touchpoints and a flock of drones. The user rents a pair of smart glasses by interacting with one of the physical touchpoints, which are located widely around the city, in popular hubs and transport stops. At the physical touchpoint, the user enters their details and is billed at the end of their journey for the time used. 

The smart glasses allow the user to have an immersive experience through augmented reality. They can be worn over traditional spectacles and allow the user to navigate through the city in an immersive and dynamic way – with visual cues that prompt navigation throughout one’s journey, such as guided maps, hand signals as well as voice interaction. One can take pictures, and record videos of the navigation which gets stored in the cloud and can be readily downloaded once one’s journey has ended. One can also live-stream what one sees to multiple other smart-glasses users in real-time.

The user then has two options for return of the glasses - the first, returning it to a physical touchpoint if it is in close proximity to their final destination. The second - if their final destination lies outside of the maximum proximity range, they are able to call a drone for collection, which comes to their current location. 

 We envision a smart city in which being able to navigate the public transport system is not only seamless and informative - but immersive, dynamic, and exciting.