EANS-News: Hoeft & Wessel develops new user interface for ticket vending machines
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporate news transmitted by euro adhoc. The issuer/originator is solely
responsible for the content of this announcement.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Research & Development
Subtitle: EU-sponsored project in the interests of improved user friendliness
and NFC support
Hannover/Germany, 28/07/2011. (euro adhoc) - Within the scope of a pan-European
EU project, Hoeft & Wessel is developing a new user interface for ticket vending
machines. Several 100,000s of bank and ticket vending machines have been
installed in Europe. These self-service terminals are an important point of
contact for millions of persons every day. The EU is now funding a project worth
millions to facilitate access to such services. The operation of terminals via
touch-screen displays - the so-called user interface - is perceived as having
substantial optimisation potential. Thanks to its many years of international
experience in this field, Hoeft & Wessel has been awarded the contract to
develop this software for TVMs. This represents a high level of responsibility
for users of the public transport network in Europe.
The total lifetime of the international project APSIS4all - Accessible
Personalised Services In Public Digital Terminals for all - is three years,
including the trial phase. The German pilot project is being carried out under
the overall supervision of Hoeft & Wessel. The software developed for the TVMs
of the type almex.station is being tested jointly with the transport company
PaderSprinter headquartered in Paderborn, Germany. Other participants are a
nationwide German interest group for the socially disadvantaged, namely SoVD
(Sozialverband Deutschland) that represents the users, as well as the Austrian
company CURE, specialists in the field of interface design. An initial test is
scheduled for 2012.
The objective of the project is to enable poorly trained as well as senior
citizens or persons with impaired mobility to have enhanced access to self-
service terminals and, therefore, to persuade them to use the facilities in
question.
For passengers, it will become even easier to operate the terminals in future.
To this end, customers will be given a SmartCard featuring RFID technology, to
which individual screen and operating parameters are saved. Once the data is
scanned, the software ensures that the font size, colour and contrast of the
user interface are adjusted to the large touch-screen display of the TVMs in
line with the profile saved to the card in question. The TVMs thus
automatically adapt to the personal needs and preferences of each individual
passenger. By way of supplementation, a ticket purchase can also be supported
by using an NFC-enabled smart phone.
The new software substantially reduces the necessary information to be entered
by the passenger. This development makes it considerably easier to operate
public self-service terminals and leads to a further improvement in the level
of user-friendliness. As a result, this makes public transport services more
attractive and thus also improves the mobility of senior citizens and
passengers with impaired mobility.
http://www.apsis4all.eu/
Press folder with photos: http://www.presseportal.de/pm/12945/hoeft_wessel_ag/
The Company
The Hoeft & Wessel Group is the leading IT and engineering technology Group for
ticketing, parking and mobile solutions in Germany and Great Britain.
Established in 1978 by the two entrepreneurs who gave the company its name and
listed on the stock market since 1998, the enterprise has developed into a
group of companies with sales revenues of nearly EUR 100 million and a
workforce of 500 employees. Its main locations are Hannover, Germany, and
Swindon, UK, to the west of London.
www.hoeft-wessel.com
Further inquiry note:
Arnd Fritzemeier
Tel.: +49-511-6102-300
E-Mail: PR@hoeft-wessel.com
end of announcement euro adhoc
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
company: Höft & Wessel AG
Rotenburger Str. 20
D-30659 Hannover
phone: +49-511-6102-0
FAX: +49-511-6102-411
mail: ir@hoeft-wessel.com
WWW: http://www.hoeft-wessel.com
sector: Technology
ISIN: DE0006011000
indexes: Prime All Share, Technology All Share
stockmarkets: regulated dealing/prime standard: Frankfurt, free trade: Berlin,
Hamburg, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Hannover, München
language: English