Now this is the kind of grad thesis that can launch a career. NYU student Bill Lindmeier created Tunnel Vision for his master’s thesis at the Tisch School for the Arts, and it has New York City subway riders downloading his app like crazy.
The free app “brings the NYC subway system to life,” according to the creator, by using augmented reality overlaid onto NYC transit maps.
“Point the app at one of the ubiquitous transit maps, and it overlays information like turnstile and schedule data from the MTA or US census data,” writes Michael Graham Richard in TreeHugger.
“Well-designed transit maps can tell us a lot of useful things, but there’s always a physical/psychological limitation to how much information they can carry,” Richard writes.
“Past a certain threshold, things become too dense for more people to figure out, or you simply run out of space… But with augmented reality, the same map can dynamically change and show you different things, depending on what you’re looking for,” Richard explains.
With turnstile and schedule data from the MTA combined with US Census data, the app helps New Yorkers get their bearings right on their iPhones.
“When a rider is waiting for the subway, she points her phone at the map to activate Tunnel Vision,” according to the TunnelVision website. “The map comes to life with animations that add context to the ridership experience. By simply moving the phone around the map, she can explore many kinds of data including turnstile activity, rent prices, income, etc.”
Nice work, Bill, and best of luck. We predict an interesting career in your future. And we want this for Android, Bill. Get on that.
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