death_bloomz

Hi everyone. I have just joined this community and was wondering if it would be possible to get some help. I am neither a cyclist, nor a bike messenger. However I am a final year student at University studying Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science (in England, UK). As part of my final year, I have to take a module called Human Computer Interaction. We are reuired to do a group project, which we then blog about.

The project we have decided to undertake is a computerised bicycle navigation system, and I was wondering if it would be possible to receive some input from actual bike messengers. Our product has to be designed around a process called 'User Centred Design', which is focussed around the user.

So far we have come up with some ideas, which can be found here. Some of the things we need to work on are:

>>Problems bike messengers encounter when they're on a delivery route.
>>What sort of functionality they would like out of the system.

Due to the fact that none of us doing this project are bike messengers, it becomes a little harder to think of less obvious problems.

We would be really grateful on your input to this project. Feel free to leave your comments either here, or on our project blog.

Thank you in advance and thank you for taking the time out to read this.

yangmusa

I'm not knocking your idea, but how is this going to contribute anything new beyond what is already easily available by gps units? Many of them have decent battery life, clear screens and can be mounted on the handlebars. I have a gps unit and I find it quite useful when visiting new places (yes, by bike!) but I hardly bother from day to day because I know my area well enough not to need any navigating aids.

linux_author

- from a design standpoint, IMHO, part of a more successful system incorporates 'successful routing,' then uploads or shares the routing for use by others... IOW, 'Acme Architects in suite 1320 on Halfwit St. are located at (followed by more specific data - in text, picture, map, or wireframe)'

- while GPS navigation is fine, 3D dimensional mapping is also part of successful routing, as messengers enter multi-level structures located at a physical address...

- add in features such as: 'the nearest cheap lunch rated according to shortest food delivery times [with only quality entries, mind you]'; nearest medical help; nearest bike shop; etc.?

- functions can be centralized on a Web server, optimized for cell or PDA pixel screens, with personalized pages for each 'agent [messenger],' perhaps this avoids hosting the data delivery [wireless] system - all that's needed is a browser-capable cell?

- of course, there's a nasty aspect, as once 'successful routes' are mapped and timed, optimal delivery times are obtained - no screwing off... but this is also good, as a delivery can be rated on 'resource requirement' and charged accordingly...

:-)

- just my US$0.02

AndrewP

What about continuous feed of each messengers location to the despatch office so additional pickups can be arranged with maximum efficiency, and possible transfer of these pickups to other messengers where their routes cross.

DCCommuter

Efficient matching of messengers to trips is a non-trivial problem. In fact, it's generally known as the "travelling salesman problem," and there's a whole branch of computer science dedicated to it. A good implementation of that should get you an A.

For extra credit, adjust for the fact that travel times by bike are not always proportional to distance travelled.

death_bloomz

Thanks folks, there is a lot of constructive stuff in here that we can use. I know at the moment it seems like we're just redesigning an existing system. I guess in a way we are, but if we can solve any problems with the existing system or design a system that allows you to perform atleast one or two more tasks much more easily then that would be good. Keep the criticisms and ideas coming, it is much appreciated. Hopefully we'll be blogging some more here once we've come up with better ideas/solutions.

MichaelW

Portable mapping systems are at a stage where they are waiting for hardware to catch up. The various epaper/rollup screens are still at prototype stages but are so useful that they should be available within 5 years. If you assume that a low power rollup/flat flexable screen will be available (real soon now) you will be ahead of the game.
Routefinding is non-trivial at the best of times but for cyclists is complicated by the fact that the best routes are not always roads or rights-of-way or legal to use. In one large block of London streets, the one-way system was designed specifically to prevent legal routing to prevent rat-running. This presents no problem to a cyclist, you simply ride the wrong way down a quiet, residential one-way street for 50 yards. Footbridges, canal tow-paths, parks etc all prvide shortcuts.
Maybe you should tag some experienced couriers with tracking locators and see how they do routefinding.

For practicality, you need some device which is available to riders on the bike (as in the map-holder of an Audax rider), but can be quickly removed when making a delivery. Any valuables left on a bike will soon be stolen.

catatonic

Take a cue from the Xybernaut wearable computer.

A simple small clear LCD screen, that can display where to turn, etc without distracting the user with sounds, or having to look down at the bars. Given these displays are monochrome (black and clear) but if the output is designed thoughtfully, you don't need huge amounts of glitz, just something that works properly and reliably.

It would be similar to those cars that display the speedometer on the windshield.

same time

Interesting stuff. When I was a messenger, the biggest problem I had was getting in and out of buildings quickly. If your system had some sort of database with instructions on every building in the city - is there a freight elevator, courier entrance, building mail room, security at front desk, after hours procedure, etc. - that would be helpful, and I'll bet every courier company would subscribe to such a service.

As for all that route planning, I think you're inventing a problem to solve it. Most messengers plot out a few safe, fast routes, a couple routes uptown and a couple downtown, and adapt those routes to their destinations. Courier companies have regular clients just like everybody else, and you find yourself going to the same addresses over and over. Nobody makes money by riding faster, or by riding fewer miles, you make money by carrying more packages. The dispatcher back in the office is the one who needs the route planning software, so he can load up his messengers with packages moving in the same direction.

Also, the most direct route is seldom the fastest or safest route by bicycle. A back road with light traffic and easily run red lights will be much faster than a direct main road with a lot of traffic and difficult intersections. You could spend years computer modeling every intersection and recommending more logical routes, but a guy on a bike will still take a left hand turn where there is a break in traffic. A road that you have ridden 100 times will be faster, for you, than a road you are riding for the first time.

Granted, I worked in two relatively logically laid out cities in the US. Things might be different in, say, London, where I understand even locals need maps to get around.

I'd say the biggest problems a bike messenger faces are communicating with the dispatcher, and getting in and out of buildings quickly.

I'll be watching your blog - looking forward to see what you come up with.

HereNT

You should also take the advice left as a comment on your blog and post over on the SS/Fix board and ask them to take a look at this thread. There are a lot of messengers over there...

slagjumper

I am not a messenger, but what about audio commands. So that you would communicate with the computer-dispatcher by voice recognition. Messanger, "done with job x". Computer dispatch, "proceed to address "y"" GPS could keep track and assign to the nearest messanger.

huhenio

I do not think that the actual experience that a messenger has can be delivered fast enough through a computer.

The holistic nature of the human brain regarding navigation through such obstacles would be really hard to emulate.

All is possiblem, but the cost? ..... and by the time the "new" messenger figures out the recomended route, the older messenger would have already gone to the location and cleared his schedule for a new, holistic experience..

death_bloomz

Hi all. It's me again If you remember, I posted a while back about creating a prototype product for Bike Messengers. From all of the feedback we collected, we have designed a prototype and we really need your help testing it. We would really appreciate it if you could. In order to understand our design decisions, you will need to read this post. After you have read that post, the file can be downloaded from here.

We would be very grateful if you would be able to provide us with feeback on:

What you like/dislike about the design.
What you like/dislike about the fucntionality.
What you think needs to be changed/added/improved/removed.

Thankyou in advance for taking out the time to help us with our project.

captinspa

....hi there.....I think that a navigation system in a watch is a little too small and anyway it wouldn't really help the life of a messenger. Althought it can be one more interesting gizmo for the demanding commuter who wants to award himself with the latest technology every change of season....a messenger who doesen't know where to go is working for a little company with a small amount of work, is constantly in a rush, often takes a wrong turn and needs ages to deliver a package but this is exactly what he wants, making mistakes is the only way to learn the best way. A messenger who works for a busy company knows his way round very well and does not need assistence, the system is not helpful even for the controller as he has been a messenger aswell and constantly knows where his riders are and where they are going, he knows they are all different and that everyone takes different routes to go to the same place. The same courier, might take different routes in different days, depending on his mood, weather, roadworks or cycling police checkpoints, some day he is really in the job and only thinks about making money and really goes for it, but other days he cannot be bothered and decide to take it easy, so where it goes or how much he stops is irrelevant. Do you really think that a human body can cycle 60-80 miles a day 5 days a week 9 hours a day for years and years.....noooooo!.....not even with caffein overdoses or energy drinks or lines of you name your favorite lifting powder......plus would you like to be a little red dot on someone screen, monitoring your position constantly like a living nightmare or would you prefer to keep that little bit of freedom that this very job gives you and sometimes be somewhere else than where you say you are, to get more work or just to do somthing you have to stop and do halfway, beetween jobs, for yourself. Not to mention that last year in London most of the big despatch companies started using XDAs devices, where they send pick-up and delivery details to the riders via sms, avoiding long talks on radios and saving millions of tons of paper as signatures are now taken on the XDA and made available in real time to the sender, wich now knows exactly who signed for his package and at what time it was delivered, instantly lifting the courier from any responsabilty regarding that parcel. I've been a courier in London for nearly ten years, whenever I ear an address, a tridimensional scan starts in my mind, I can clearly picture the place in my inner view and if I have to go there, follow the whole route figuring out if there are roadworks, blockages or places I prefer to avoid. Is like this for many of us, as it is for black cab drivers. I have probably gone a bit too far now, what I wanted to say is just.......keep it simple man!.....a bike is the most beatiful and simple creation of human being, to ride it, to get lost with it and live a little adventure every once in a while in a place you don't know is a fantastic experience that might bring you somwhere you would have never get unless you got lost.....enjoy it as it is, whatever it is....good luck for your project guys.....I'll keep updated.....

death_bloomz

Hi, it's me again. We are very grateful for everyone's contribution to our project the past few weeks. We have taken all your suggestions into consideration and refined our prototype. We would appreciate it if you could please test this for us and fill in the questionnaire.

You will need to enable macros for the prototype to function fully.
The file has been tested for viruses, so by downloading it, nothing malicious will happen to your computer.

Thank you for taking the time out to help us with this.

Our project blog can be found here

CastIron

Pictures? My security settings won't allow the download (which is prudent, nobody TELLS you it's a virus). I'm not sufficiently curious to sacrafice a cat today.

death_bloomz

We'll try and get some pictures posted up by the end of the day. Please check our blog then

death_bloomz

We have one week before our project is due and as of yet we've not managed to receive any feedback about our prototype. We would be very very grateful if you could click on this post, test our prototype and fill in the questionnaire. As without the questionnaire results we cannot perform our evaluation.

Thankyou for your time.

PaxRomana

London motorcycle courier here. ^^ This is spot on. As for myself on a motorcycle, it would be useless to me for jobs in central London. The time you spend looking at it is wasted. Quicker to look in your A-Z street guide and go. I use a PDA based TomTom system for out of town trips where I don't carry street level maps. I cant imagine a bicycle courier having any more use for it, with his smaller range etc. As the man here says, getting in and out is one of the biggest time wasters. It is very common now in London for firms to use PDA based systems for receiving/completeing jobs and getting signatures. I use this myself and now no longer use a radio - I get a call on my mobile via earpiece under helmet from despatch to say there's a job on my screen if I didn't hear the PDA bleep and press to accept the job. Many people still use the radios for this purpose but I prefer to get rid of the thing. If I was bicycling I'd use the radio for job alerts. Is very useful way of doing things if it's raining - no soggy paper sheets . And no trying to remember 3 pickups and drops in your head all the time .

Use the same PDA system for my GPS for these longer jobs I mention. So sounds to me like you're re-inventing the wheel, just complicating things and raising costs (that often in London forms at least the riders, being self-employed, get charged by their dispatchers for!!). Sorry. The best and quickest way to do all this stuff is to commit it to memory, especially for the shorter range bicycle courier. Interesting idea though from a techie point of view .

huhenio

Farkle