visionunion

AFC System of Subway No.10 in Beijing

As the Beijing Olympic Games closed, the subway No.10 has been used for 1 month. During this period, many users had tasted it and got very exciting impression. One reporter from German said, the subway No.10 equipment has surpassed the level of Singapore and Hong kong. What about the design of subway No.10? Here is the description LKK design, the design company of AFC system of subway No.10, offered, which includes description of AG, TVM, TCM machine.

Description of AG machine
1.Shape Analysis
The Form of AG is inspired by Chinese traditional paper fan，keeping a balance of soft and hard style. It has a strong taste which expresses the Chinese traditional culture well. As follows below:

On the other hand, the smooth fan arc side-design of the product can offer much convenient to the passengers who bring large luggage and other bags which can slide down directly to the other side along the smooth arc. As shown below.

The bottom part curve is designed to avoid hitting passengers’ knees and feet.
As shown below.

2.Material Analysis
The material choice broke the traditional limit which uses stainless steel, and AG machine chose recycled deep-grey plastic at two ends of the screen, swiping card area and the ticket collecting area. Soft plastic has a strong accommodative sense and the white metal in sharp contrast to the dark grey plastic which not only has enriched the form level of the product but also well divided the function area. And on the other hand, using plastic can also prevent the electromagnetic interference of the card-swiping area. As shown below.

3.Ergonomic Analysis
The design of AG follows the non-barrier standard to define the product size. It’s 2m long, 1.1m maximum height which is in our country’s normal hand function range. And it is also can be operated by the disabled people and the children over 1.3 m height normal.

TCM

1.Form Analysis
The main function of TCM is to check the balance of subway card. The material of the product is stainless steel and PVC.
TCM always used in combination with TVM machine, so the shape of TCM must be consistent with TVM. As shown at right. The front panel is raised which make the form looks more artifice and it also increase the flexibility of the product.

2.Dimension Analysis
The research shows that the largest perspective is 25°above the horizon, and the largest is 35°below the horizon, the comfortable sight is15°below horizon, so the operator’s comfortable perspective is the vertical angle of the perspective centre 0~15°. At the same time, taking the children and the people use wheelchair into account, defining the product’s height as 1.3m.which could not only maintain the adults’ perspective the comfortable range, but also make the product be used by the children over 1.3m height and other disabled people. As shown below.

TVM

TVM has the function of selling tickets and recharging subway card, and it also uses two kind of materials, stainless steel and recycled dark grey plastic, which reflects the overall consistency. Main functional areas (including the touch screen, coin-putting area) placed in the inclined operation panel which makes it easy to operate.

1.Dimension Analysis
The overall dimension design follows the non-barrier standard and gives full consideration to the body size of different group of people. The study showed that adults height is basically concentrated in 1.15m ~ 1.8m (As shown in Figure 2-Sketch of human body height), and the range of the operating altitude is 0.74m ~ 1.40m. The best operating range is 0.9m ~ 1.25m. (As shown in Figure 3) Therefore the maximum height of the product is set to 1.8m and the commonly used functional modules are defined between 0.8~1.35m, which can meet all the operational demand of adults, disabled, and children over 1.3m height.(As shown in Figure 4 Sketch of Dimension design of TVM)In addition, the study also showed that the optimum working interface for the right hand is 36°~40°, so the product’s front width is designed around 0.95m under the premise of the machines are placed 0.5m interval.(As shown in Figure 5 Sketch of right hand working interface)

Figure 2-Sketch of human body height Figure 3-Sketch of operate height

Figure 4 Sketch of Dimension design of TVM

Figure 5 Sketch of right hand working interface

2.Modules Analysis
dividing functional areas

Figure6 - Sketch of divide of functional areas

Based on functional requirements, the modules are divided into functional areas (including a touch screen, the coins module, notes module and take/change module, etc.) and recharge areas (including a touch screen, the notes module, the card module, etc.) (As shown in Figure 6 Sketch of divide of functional areas).And these are all relatively common functional module , and we also divide these module according to the level of using frequency of the functional modules.(As shown in Figure 7 Sketch of frequency of use)

Figure7 - Sketch of frequency of use

The specific main functional module layout is as shown in Figure 8 Schematic of module layout, placed on the declined panel between 0.8m~1.35m height.

Figure 8 Schematic of module layout

3.Identification Analysis
Although Beijing Subway has years of history, the implementation of automation is just beginning, and many passengers haven’t used AG, TVM, TCM before, so we must do a good job in marking guide, in particularly in TVM which with ticketing and recharging two functions. “Close all”, then passengers could agree with the convenience as soon as possible, and realize the automation of all the subway system.
First, for the busy modern life, people have to face the environment filled with all kinds of information everyday. An ordinary worker will have psychology communications from over 50 kinds of sources, including office and living need. Our lives have already full of information, whether tangible or intangible. So people want to communicate more clearly, quickly, and spend the least time to learn how to operate. Therefore we use the picture to display the steps of the tickets and charging, and according to the manipulation-display consistency, range the operate steps below the coins functional area by the order from top to bottom.(As shown in Figure 9 Sketch of operate instruction)

Figure 9 - Sketch of operate instruction

In addition, every functional module has it’s own identification design and Using dark blue as background in according with the people’s customary. And the using of standard bold fonts and their proper size can bring much convenience to the ordinary people, the elderly and the visually impaired and other people, who can get the message very quickly and operate very easily. As follows below: