Technical report draft 2

Wendy Gwee

SIT Estate

Singapore Institute of Technology

10 Dover Drive

Singapore 138682

Dear Ms Gwee,

RE: Proposal to implement seat occupancy detection mobile application

I am Poh Cheron, a first year student from the Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering programme at Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). I am tasked to do a problem solution project along with two other students to develop Singapore in a manner that benefits its citizens as by our lecturer, Mr. Brad Blackstone. As current students, we do realize that many students face the problem of circling among 2 canteens, namely Canopy and iEat, in search of a vacant seat during lunch time.

Attached to this email is a detailed report which consists of a description of the current situation, the rationale behind the proposed solution, an evaluation of the benefits and a summary of all related primary and secondary research involved. If you have further queries, you may wish to contact me at 9756-3378 or my fellow colleagues Cai Jun He or Joel Leow at 9101-8108 and 8223-3156 respectively.

Thank you for taking time to read this proposal. Your consideration of our proposal is greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Poh Cheron

1. Introduction

As students of SIT, we have noticed that the Canopy canteen at the Dover campus is often packed with students and staff members between 12p.m. till 2p.m. daily. Given that students’ lunch break are mostly an hour, it is often a struggle to enjoy a meal without the pressure of time before the next lesson begins. A survey conducted among 27 students showed that 60% of the respondents indicated that they spend approximately five to ten minutes every day circling within the canteen of their choice looking for seats. These results are not inclusive of time taken to travel between each of the canteens searching for available seats as well as time taken queueing up for food. As such, it has become A-Team’s interest to develop a solution to help reduce unnecessary wastage of time.

According to (Tan, 2017), member of SIT’s registrar's office, there are a total of 2539 students and staff members at SIT Dover campus. On the contrary, the two canteens, iEat and Canopy canteen, offer a total seating capacity of 584 which may be insufficient to address the lunch crowd. The Canopy canteen has proven to be the preferred lunch venue for students as statistics show that 78% of respondents chose that canteen due to its affordability and wide selection of food. As a result, Canopy canteen becomes overcrowded during lunch hours and patrons tend to spend a considerable amount of time circulating the canteen searching for seats.

Although an additional canteen that is identical to the Canopy canteen could be a possible solution to address the issue of an overcrowding canteen. It may not be feasible due to the high cost of construction incurred by the institution as well as the restriction of limited space within the Dover campus. Therefore, A-Team has come up with an alternative solution which aims to manage crowd control within canteens. This is done by providing real time information of the available seats in each specific canteen so as to influence the decision of students and staff members on whether they should consume their lunch at that specific canteen.

2. Problem Statement

Instead of wasting time on finding seats at an overcrowded canteen, students and staff members should be able to determine the available seats before patronizing the canteen during peak periods. During these times, students and staff members often waste a substantial amount of time looking for seats in the canteen. There is a need for SIT to better facilitate crowd control by allowing students and staff members to have access to information which will help them avoid crowded canteens.

3. Purpose Statement

The aim of this report is to propose to the estate management of SIT to approve the installation of sensors within the two canteens at Dover campus which will minimize unnecessary wastage of time consumed to find a seat during lunch hours.

4. Proposed solution

The proposed solution is a mobile application, “Hot Seats”, which uses real-time data to indicate the number of seats available at a specific canteen. This concept revolves around the use of capacitive sensors attached at the underside of tables to detect occupied seats. The information collected by the sensor will then be instantly uploaded into a web-based portal software which can be accessed through a mobile phone. Users of the “Hot Seats” application can use this information to decide on a less crowded canteen to consume their lunch. The mobile application will be designed in a way which is user friendly and quick to use so as to provide an improved user experience.

                 

Figure A: This figure illustrates how the capacitive sensors are attached on the underside of the canteen’s table.

4.1. Technical specifications

According to Intellectual Property Intermediary Singapore (2016), the presence of an object or a person can be detected through the use of these unique capacitive sensors. A sensor is attached to the underside of a table directly facing each seat (Refer to figure 1). In addition, the “Hot Seats” application includes the use of a microcontroller (refer to figure 2) and a web-based portal software. The microcontroller collects the data provided by the sensors which will then be sent to a web-based portal. This information can be linked to the “Hot Seats” application showing the quantity as well as the percentage of available seats within a canteen on the user’s phone.(Refer to figure 3). Although the intended purpose of the application is directed towards the lunch crowd between 12PM to 2PM, the sensors will be turned on from 11 AM to 3PM daily. This is to allow users of the application to monitor the build up situation of the canteen before making a decision. The sensors will refreshed every 30 seconds providing real time updates to ensure credibility of the information.

In addition, every table will be individually numbered and a simple layout of the canteen will be displayed in the mobile application. Vacant seats will be shown in green on the user’s mobile phone while an occupied seat will be indicated as red.  (refer to figure 4)

4.2. Existing Solutions In The Market

In the current market, there is an existing mobile application that is capable of indicating the percentage of occupancy in restaurants. “Workfrom” is an application used mostly by working adults to locate conducive workspaces within a certain area. Similar to the proposed idea, “Workfrom” uses data collected from sensors installed at access points of food establishments to indicate the number of people inside. However, “Workfrom” is not applicable at SIT due to the structural design of canteens. According to Buckner (2015) the mobile application uses sensors installed at the doors frames of access points to tabulate the number of people present in a specific area. The Canopy canteen is an open concept canteen with huge spaces between pillars supporting the canteen (refer to figure 5). Unless the canteen is limited to a few specific access points, it is difficult to track the number of people within the compound. On the contrary, iEat allows the effective use of the “Workfrom” application due to the limited access points (refer to figure 6). However, the canteen is often used as a means of transit between areas by students and staff members. Therefore, the results tabulated will not reflect an accurately percentage of available seats at iEat.

4.3.  Benefits of Proposed Solution

“Hot Seats” allow application users to locate available seats in the campus canteens within a short frame of time. The information generated from the sensors enable students and staff members to check on the vacancy of their desired canteen before making a move towards it.  “Hot Seats” also provides an option for students and staff members who are not pressed for time to visit the canteen at an alternative timing. This will help ease the build up of an overcrowding canteen. With the real-time readings gathered from the sensors, application users are able to identify the exact quantity of available seats as well as the percentage of occupancy at each specific canteen. This information will help application users to make an informed decision on an appropriate venue to have lunch.    

4.4. Limitations of Proposed Solution

The implementation of capacitance sensor in the proposal will incur a large sum of money. A total of 584 sensors have to be installed in the canteens, due to its short proximity detection. Four sensors have to be mounted on the underside of each table, detecting objects or human within its proximity.

Another concern of the application is the inconsistency and quick fluctuation of seat availability within specific canteens. Students and staff members may be placed in an unfavorable situation whereby the application shows a canteen nearing its full capacity may turn to full house during the 30 seconds real time feed delays. This may possibly result in additional time being wasted travelling between canteens looking for vacant seats. Under such situations, students and staff members who are unable to find vacant seats may consider the option of ordering take-aways if they are pressed for time.

5. Alternative Solution

An alternative solution to address the issue of time wasted searching for seats could be to implement reservation features in the mobile application. An added online reservation software can be integrated into the existing web-based portal. This allows “Hot Seats” application users to book seats in advance through this added feature without having the worry of not being able to comfortably secure seats during lunch.

5.1. Limitations of Alternative Solution

Online reservation systems can be expensive to implement. According to (Steinberg, 2014), companies providing online reservation softwares can either charge monthly fees or earn commission from software users. Over time, this can add up to a considerable sum which may be better invested elsewhere. Although there are free existing online reservation system softwares available over the internet, (Steinberg, 2014) asserts that it comes with minimal technical support and is susceptible to system errors.

Apart from the cost of implementing an online reservation feature, reservations may not be adhered to by students or staff members as it is difficult to control or enforce this system. It is possible for that people who are not aware may occupy the table even though it has been reserved. This will indefinitely cause chaos at the canteen. Hence, the reservation feature may have to be evaluated further before implementation.

7. Methodology

Upon the observation that students and staff members encounter difficulty finding seats during lunch time in the canteen, our group decided to investigate the causes and develop feasible solutions to address this problem. With the limited space constraint at the school compound, it has become the interest of the group to come up with a solution that is capable of influencing the decision of the student and staff population to dine at a less crowded canteen. conduct research on how to facilitate in crowd-control such that patrons are spreaded out to different canteens within the school.

7.1. Primary Research

Our team conducted an online survey targeting students to gather statistics on the percentage of students who encounter difficulty finding vacant seats in the canteen and the canteen they frequent. Also, students were asked to evaluate the usefulness of the mobile application indicating the seating availability. Interviews were also conducted with various stall owners and person in-charge of canteens for their opinion on the implementation of the mobile application.

7.2. Secondary Research

Our group then surf the internet researching for similar ideas and methods of implementing our proposed solution. Also, we used app wireframe softwares to create a brief design of the application. All secondary research can be found in the References and Appendices section.

8. Conclusion

Circling around canteens in search of a vacant seat causes inconvenience and result in time wastage for both students and staff members. As students and staff members have limited time for lunch, time consumed on finding vacant seats should be minimized.

In an interview with a first-year student taking the Bachelor of Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering, Tan (2017) stated that he prefers to consume his meal at the Canopy canteen due to its affordability however he does not mind eating at alternative canteens when he is in a rush for time.  

The proposed mobile application provides an overview of seat occupancy allowing student and staff members to view the availability of seats in the canteens thereby eliminating inconvenience and minimizing time consumed circling around canteens to find available seats.

The implementation of this application will not only benefit students and staff members, it will also provide an opportunity for students and staff members to patronize quieter canteens thereby boosting sales and publicity for them. Hence, time will be used efficiently for students and staff members to increase their work productivity.