Everyone Makes a Mark

It goes by the name Mobile Transit Companion (MTC) and it's a smartphone application developed by Hossein Rahnama, a Ryerson postdoctoral student, and his team in Ryerson's Digital Media Zone (DMZ). Now, passengers with special needs use the Ryerson team's smartphone app and its context-aware, self-adapting computing power as their own personal guide to the Paris Métro.

Here's how it works. As a traveller with special needs, you download the free app to your smartphone and set up your profile before you start your trip on the Paris Métro. When you arrive at your Métro stop, you use either a voice or gesture command to activate the app's services. Your smartphone then gathers contextual data about your location and tells you how to make a safe transfer or exit. At the same time, Métro staff have been alerted to your presence, and know what kind of help you may need. Très cool, n'est-ce pas?

The MTC was created as part of a European-funded research project called MUSIC. Ryerson is the only North American partner in the European consortium through its research relationship with Stockholm's Appear Networks.

This is just the start. Hossein and his team are working on other applications for use in airports, airplanes, trains, subways, buses, etc. in Ryerson's DMZ where students are creating, building and implementing tomorrow's digital solutions today.

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