I completed my industrial attachment in a utilities company in Jurong Island. During everyday's trip to and from there, I will always pass this tourist attraction point called Jurong Bird Park (JBP). When I saw the sign, I found that there's something different with it. Usually when you go to some other place in Singapore especially in MRT, you'll notice that most of the instruction are given in four different language, which are English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. But that's not the case for Jurong Bird Park's sign. You'll find that there's actually some Japanese characters written on it.
And that has something to do with our project for last week. Prof Gilbert gave us assignment on how to improve the current multilingual instruction in JBP. Currently, they have multilingual support for most of the instruction, written or announced. The problem is that it costs them a lot to maintain such kind of support. So, the case was to make use of mobile technology to cater the demand for multilingual support in JBP. It's a team project, and with my friend, Damar, we were wroking together as ProCon (the name of our group).
Being totally clueless of what is going on the mobile technology world nowadays, we found it a bit frustrating to come up with some idea on how to incorporate the technology to improve the system. After a short reading and a brief discussion with my technologically gifted friend, Agung, we decided to make use of the location-based service concept for our project. But then, I just realized that we knew nothing specific about it. It'll be pointless if I mentioned something on that here, since I've done that in the class and I didn't think it turned out very well.
To start the idea, JBP must contact the three mobile providers in Singapore. They must have some kind of agreement where JBP will act as content provider for the service our group is discussing. The content would include all the brief and detail information about the birds and their life in all the available language that will be served in JBP. The list of the language would be based on previous years' statistics.
The main target for this service would be all the foreign tourists with little or no English fluency. Those who have their mobile phone with international roaming can sign up for this service upon admission to JBP. They will be asked whether they want to use such service. If yes, then they will choose their preferable language.
Next, we divide JBP into several clusters, each one containing certain numbers of cages or attraction. In every clusters and cages, there will be numerical code written on the display board. This number correspond to the input that must be fed by the users to get the information about that particular cage or cluster.
Let's say we have cluster A: Flightless Bird and cluster B: Birds of Prey. On each display board, there will be numbers, such as 1 for cluster A and 2 for cluster B. If the user just want to know the general information about cluster A, they just need to text number 1 to a certain number such as 9876, specifically meant for this service. Since they have already chosen their preferable language upon registration, they will get the information they request in that language too.
If they want to get specific details on each specimen, they can input the more detailed code to the provider. Example: If I wish to know more information on Falcon bird from cage no 12 in cluster B, then I can just text "2 [space] 12" to the same number.
I also had an idea that if they wish to see more than 160-characters information, they can dial that 9876 number to hear the instruction for requesting information. People who prefer audio media will be able to get information as well.
To conclude this very brief idea, I am going to say that I did absolutely realize that the suggestion we're giving has very little information on technology part. However, I do also realize that it doesn't need to be too technical if you can do it in a simpler way but still able to push the right button, just like we did. We believed that it will make a good business if JBP can borrow our idea.
Of course, you must already know by know that everyone will think that their solution is the best one. That includes me.
And that has something to do with our project for last week. Prof Gilbert gave us assignment on how to improve the current multilingual instruction in JBP. Currently, they have multilingual support for most of the instruction, written or announced. The problem is that it costs them a lot to maintain such kind of support. So, the case was to make use of mobile technology to cater the demand for multilingual support in JBP. It's a team project, and with my friend, Damar, we were wroking together as ProCon (the name of our group).
Being totally clueless of what is going on the mobile technology world nowadays, we found it a bit frustrating to come up with some idea on how to incorporate the technology to improve the system. After a short reading and a brief discussion with my technologically gifted friend, Agung, we decided to make use of the location-based service concept for our project. But then, I just realized that we knew nothing specific about it. It'll be pointless if I mentioned something on that here, since I've done that in the class and I didn't think it turned out very well.
To start the idea, JBP must contact the three mobile providers in Singapore. They must have some kind of agreement where JBP will act as content provider for the service our group is discussing. The content would include all the brief and detail information about the birds and their life in all the available language that will be served in JBP. The list of the language would be based on previous years' statistics.
The main target for this service would be all the foreign tourists with little or no English fluency. Those who have their mobile phone with international roaming can sign up for this service upon admission to JBP. They will be asked whether they want to use such service. If yes, then they will choose their preferable language.
Next, we divide JBP into several clusters, each one containing certain numbers of cages or attraction. In every clusters and cages, there will be numerical code written on the display board. This number correspond to the input that must be fed by the users to get the information about that particular cage or cluster.
Let's say we have cluster A: Flightless Bird and cluster B: Birds of Prey. On each display board, there will be numbers, such as 1 for cluster A and 2 for cluster B. If the user just want to know the general information about cluster A, they just need to text number 1 to a certain number such as 9876, specifically meant for this service. Since they have already chosen their preferable language upon registration, they will get the information they request in that language too.
If they want to get specific details on each specimen, they can input the more detailed code to the provider. Example: If I wish to know more information on Falcon bird from cage no 12 in cluster B, then I can just text "2 [space] 12" to the same number.
I also had an idea that if they wish to see more than 160-characters information, they can dial that 9876 number to hear the instruction for requesting information. People who prefer audio media will be able to get information as well.
To conclude this very brief idea, I am going to say that I did absolutely realize that the suggestion we're giving has very little information on technology part. However, I do also realize that it doesn't need to be too technical if you can do it in a simpler way but still able to push the right button, just like we did. We believed that it will make a good business if JBP can borrow our idea.
Of course, you must already know by know that everyone will think that their solution is the best one. That includes me.
1 comment:
Happy to see you shift your focus from understanding the technology to understanding how the behaviour works, and might work with different technology.
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