Introduction

WakeMeHere is a location (BUS) and activity recognition (METRO) based alarm app for Shanghai City that wakes up the user at a specified distance or particular metro station before reaching the destination.

Story

I live in one of the most busiest city of India - New Delhi. From people to metro everything moves here very fast to stay on schedule. I myself is regular user of Delhi Metro and Delhi Buses. During my summer internship I used to travel a long way from Rohini to Hauz Khas around 40-50 km via either bus or metro. The long hours disturbed my schedule of sleeping and exercising. As someone who had to depend on public transportation early in the morning for a few months, I know how hard it is to sometimes stay awake until you reach your stop. You want to catch a few minutes of sleep, but then you’re afraid you might miss your stop and be late to wherever you’re going. As a result of that anxiety, I never trusted myself to fall asleep on the bus. I even downloaded an app for the location based alarm, it was good in case of using bus because it depended on GPS and even had a poor battery usage optimization but in case of metro which often goes underground where networks and GPS is down, this app made me miss my stops several times. I could have really used the NAP during those long hour journeys. Currently no app exist that solves the Metro thing problem.

Looking at the same kind of scenario in Shanghai where people travel a long distance to work on daily basis and they too might try to take a nap but fear to miss their stop, I came up with an idea for a location as well as user activity baseD alarm app so that you nothing to worry about, because it will set off an alarm when you’re close to your stop.

So WakeMeHere stands out from other Apps in the following way -

For BUS Transportation Mode:

The app allows you to search for destination location and set a minimum distance at which you want to get awake from your destination. (eg 400 meters). Now you can just sit back in your seat and have that nap you were thinking to take from so long. The app will first use your network provider data to estimate your location to optimize battery usage and when near 5 km from your destination it will shift to GPS location to fetch accurate data for alarm to go off.

For METRO Transportation Mode (SOMETHING NEW):

Instead of relying on GPS or Netwrok Provider I choose to go with Activity Recognition a new Google API that tells when you're standing still or moving in a vehicle or metro.

The user first select the source and destination station from the Shanghai Metro Lines (1-13 and 16). The route to corresponding journey is then displayed. The user will hit the set alarm when he gets into the metro and is currently at the source station. The app will use the api to gage when the metro is moving, and sounds an alarm to wake you up a few minutes before you are to reach your destination.

Bus and metro/subway rides will be a whole lot smoother if you can rest easy knowing you’ll wake in plenty of time to get off at your correct stop. And, those few extra minutes might just help you to have a much better day than you otherwise would've.

Target User

Long-range Bus/Metro commuters and chronic subway sleepers.

(Even if you aren't a chronic subway sleeper, it can be really easy to drift off if you're using public transit to get home late at night after a party or after a particularly long day. Using this app will turn your smartphone into an alarm clock that will ensure that you wake up before your stop.