Portland Bus Service Launches Augmented Reality Channel

Portland’s regional transit agency TriMet has announced a partnership with Augmented Reality (AR) firm junaio to integrate transit data, including station locations, bus routes and estimated arrival times, into a TriMet channel on the junaio 2.0 mobile AR platform.

Available free on the iPhone 3GS and coming soon to Android devices, the TriMet channel will give riders easy and instant access to transit information on nearby stops by simply pointing their phone around them to find the direction of the nearest bus station and get a list of estimated arrivals for the next several buses to their destination. The information is provided on a digital overlay made possible by the phone’s compass and GPS. Users can also browse stops and schedules nearby within a specified radius using the Map and List views.

“Augmented reality intuitively lays out transit information for our riders” says Bibiana McHugh, IT Manager, GIS and Location-based Services for TriMet. “We are thrilled to have the AR channel as another means of helping our riders get to their destinations.”