Critical Reflection

Oral Presentation skills is one of the areas I have set a goal to improve on since the start of the module, given the fact that my lack of confidence hinders my ability to bring my messages across clearly during presentation. In my opinion, I feel that I have made a remarkable improvement under the guidance of my lecturer Ms Lim, as well as my fellow team members and classmates. Over the course of this module, I affirmed that the only way to improve oral presentation skills is only through practices.

Looking back at the mock presentation conducted in class, I learnt more about myself and others with the constructive comments from both my peers and lecturer. Furthermore, I have seen other groups present as well, and it is obvious recognizing individuals who are adequately prepared or not.

In response, together with my team, we sat down and rehearsed countless of times, and it is evident that that we are only getting better with each and every practice. For the final presentation, I feel that we did an excellent job as a team and on top of that, we are chosen as one of the teams to represent the class for the presentation showcase.

Presentation Showcase was a whole new level of experience. Presenting to a bigger audience consisting of professors and lecturers definitely mount immense pressure on us. However despite the pressure, we managed to keep our calm and present our point across. It was a good learning experience comparing the difference between presenting to purely classmates, and a group of unfamiliar faces. In any case, it is of paramount importance to be confidence when speaking, and it can only be achieved through practices. This is something that I will take away with me from this project experience.

Final Technical Report

5. Introduction of Proposed Solution - ’EZIT’

‘EZIT’ is a smart microcontroller system which consists of basic inputs and output. The inputs consist of a touch panel and a bell together while the output consists of a holographic display.

Figure 5.1 - An illustration of ‘EZIT’ smart system, with bell and touchpad being inputs and holographic display being output

5.1  Features of ‘EZIT’

Smart system EZIT is designed to solve two main problems, boarding and alighting. ‘EZIT’ system incorporates three main features. They are the display of upcoming bus stops, Bell Alighting Systems, and the Empty Space Indicator. The holographic display will be mounted on the ceiling in the middle of the bus.

5.1.1 Display of Upcoming Bus Stops

The multi angled holographic display will show the upcoming bus stops, as shown in Figure 5.2 below, at all angles. In addition, the upcoming stop, located at the top of the display, will be shown more prominently as compared to the rest of the stops.

Figure 5.2 - Displaying of Upcoming Bus Stops

Results from the survey conducted indicates that commuters often miss their stops as they are unsure of when to alight. By displaying the upcoming bus stops, commuters will be more aware of when their stop is reaching and thus, facilitate easier alighting.

5.1.2 Bell Alighting System

The Bell Alighting System aims to solve the problem of commuters squeezing their way out of the bus by highlighting out the areas that commuters are alighting. For example, if commuters press the bell at area S and D, indicating that they wish to alight. Area S and D will be highlighted out in the holographic display as shown in Figure 5.3 below.

Figure 5.3 - Bell Alighting System

Commuters can refer to the display to facilitate giving way to the alighting passengers. On top of that, there will also be a visual and audio message prompting commuters to give way to alighting passengers. This added function is in line with LTA's vision to cultivate graciousness in commuters.

5.1.3 Empty Space Indicator

Using the cameras installed on the bus, the bus captain would be able to look out for any empty space in the bus. With just a simple touch, he can highlight the empty spaces out to the commuters through the touch panel which is located just beside the bus steering wheel. As shown in Figure 5.4 below, the interior of the bus has been divided in 3 sections, area X, Y, and Z. If the bus captain notice that area X and Y is crowded while area Z has empty spaces. He can highlight it out by touching area Z on the touchpanel. This would then be projected on the holographic display. This would make boarding easier for commuters as the spaces at the front of the bus will be freed up when commuters move in.

Figure 5.4 - Empty Space Indicator

Analytical reflection regarding mock oral presentation

It is extremely important to be able to express oneself and our thoughts to opposite parties in a clear and concise manner. It may be through normal conversations with people to the extent of presenting yourself and your thoughts to a group of people. In the case of presentation, it is essential to firstly, be able to grab the attention of the audience throughout the whole presentation. Followed by conveying your messages across clearly and concisely.

For my mock presentation, I did not start with an arresting introduction, presented with only a single tone and heavily depended on the slides throughout the whole presentation. Worst of all, I was soft and could not be heard all the way from the back. These were pointed out in my oral evaluation done by my peers and lecturer. I believe all of these happened because of the lack of preparation as I did not rehearse and practice beforehand. 

From this experience, with the constructive feedback from my lecturer and peers, I get to know both my strengths and weaknesses in presenting which are beneficial as I can improve on my weaknesses and not repeat the mistakes I made. 

For my final presentation, I will prepare myself adequately through practicing with my team mates. Most importantly, I will familiarize myself with the content of my presentation. By doing so, I hope to be able to present more confidently, fluently and enthusiastically to engage my audience. Audience engagement is important as the main purpose of the final presentation is to persuade the audience to adopt my team's idea. Hence, with improved presentation skills, I believe I can bring my team's idea across to the audience in a more effective way.

Technical report Draft 1

Proposed solution

From survey results gathered, we found out that commuters have trouble boarding and alighting public transport. We also found out that majority of the commuters spent most of their time on their phones , so our team came out with an idea of having a holographic display alongside with a mobile application that complements it to tackle this problem.

The holographic projector will display a hologram layout of the interior in respect to the  public transport. The holographic projector will have features such as displaying the next station, facilities and amenities of the location, the exact spot of the commuters who are alighting and also displaying advertisements. The projection of the hologram will be on the ceiling of the public transport.

Free Wi-Fi system will be available for public usage in trains and buses, but the trade-off of this solution is that users will have to download the application in order to use the Wi-Fi. The application works in conjunction with the train’s Wi-Fi system and it serves as a notice to prompt the users with important messages/warning to look at the hologram whenever there is a need.

When commuters enters a MRT or bus, they can connect to the free Wi-Fi available inside the cabin through an application. The application will then prompt the commuters for their alighting stop. During the journey, the user will be notified by the application through a pop up message whenever someone is alighting or when the next station/stop is busy. For busy station/stops, the app will notify the user with a warning message that there will be huge volume of people alighting/boarding the station. When there is someone alighting, the commuter will be notified by the pop up to take a look at the holographic display. The holographic display gives them a visual representation of the people alighting so that the commuter can better facilitate a way for them to alight. The application will also notify the commuter when the commuter’s alighting stop is approaching.

Reader's Response

According to “Floor lights help ‘smartphone zombies’ keep eye on the road”, (Tan, 2017), new LED strips that mimics the flow of the traffic lights are installed at 2 pedestrian crossings on a half-year trial by the Land Transport Authority to raise awareness of road safety.

Tan mentioned about the figures, which was released by Traffic Police, that the accident rates were at a four year high, with pedestrian accidents making one-third of all fatal road accidents and the elderly making up substantial part of the figures. Tan then remarked that the new feature will make crossing safer with the assistance of the LED strips.

While the new safety system implemented would aid pedestrian to cross the road safer and reduce road accidents, I feel that LTA should work together with the Traffic Police to focus the ongoing problem regarding road safety among the elderly.

Statistics have shown that accidents involving the elderly are increasing over the past few years. According to the figures provided by the Singapore Police Force (2017), both the number of accidents and fatalities involving the elderly have increased by 19.6% and 21.7% respectively. In this case, LED lights would only benefit the elderly in traffic junction due to visual hindrance which prevents some of them from seeing the traffic signal from far. However, as mentioned by the report released by SPF, “Elderly pedestrian fatalities are also commonly caused by motorists not keeping a lookout for and not giving way to these pedestrians.”, the LED floor lights would only aid the elderly pedestrian to cross road safer but they are still vulnerable to careless motorists. With that being said, LTA and TP should impose heavier punishment on careless motorists.

Another key issue the LTA and TP should focus on is the problem with jaywalking among the elderly.

SPF indicated that the number of accidents involving elderly who jaywalked increased by 42.1% in recent years. In the article “Convenience over safety for senior jaywalkers” (2016), a senior citizen in his 70s, said that it is exhausting to climb the overhead bridges due to the sweltering weather and ‘it is more convenient just to jaywalk’. Despite having overhead bridges and safety measurement introduced by LTA such as Green Man Plus Scheme, which provides elderly pedestrians additional time to cross the road, the elderly pedestrians still chose jaywalking in favour of walking to the nearest traffic light or making extra effort to climb overhead bridges. In this instance, LED lights would not be useful at all as it is only available in traffic junctions. LTA and TP would have to educate the elderly to further stress the importance of safety to convenience sake and step up effort to nab jaywalkers.

In conclusion, although LTA implemented LED floor lights to ensure road safety of the people, it is evident that accidents involving the elderly are not showing signs of improvements. Therefore, LTA, with the aid of TP could work together and tackle the issue regarding road safety among the elderly by improving current safety measures.

Reference:

Tan, Christopher. “Floor lights help 'smartphone zombies' keep eye on the road.” The Straits Times, 9 May 2017, www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/floor-lights-help-smartphone-zombies-keep-eye-on-the-road.

Accessed 15 Sept. 2017.

''Annual Road Traffic Situation 2016" Singapore Police Force, 15 February 2017, https://www.police.gov.sg/~/media/spf/files/statistics/20170215_stats_road_traffic_situation_2016.pdf

Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Land Transport Authority, n.d,

https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/roads-and-motoring/projects/road-and-commuter-facilities/silver-zones.html

Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Soh, Zachary. “Convenience over safety for senior jaywalkers” The New Paper, 17 April 2017,

http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore/convenience-over-safety-senior-jaywalkers

Accessed 13 October 2017.

Reader's Response draft for 'Floor lights'

According to “Floor lights help ‘smartphone zombies’ keep eye on the road”, (Tan, 2017), new LED strips that mimics the flow of the traffic lights are installed at 2 pedestrian crossings on a half-year trial to raise awareness of road safety.

As stated by Traffic Police (2017), the accident rates were at a 4 year high with pedestrian accidents making one-third of all fatal road accidents. Senior researcher, Menon (2017) mentioned that many pedestrians are hooked to their phones, so any method to better the safety of pedestrians are welcomed. Tan then states that the new feature will make crossing easier and safer with the assistance of the LED strips.

While I agree with the writer to a certain extent that the new safety system implemented would aid ‘smartphone zombies’ to cross the road safer and reduce road accidents, I feel that there is another group of pedestrians that require greater focus, which is the elderly.

Statistics have shown that accidents involving elderly are still increasing over the years. According to the figures provided by the Singapore Police Force (2017), both number of accident and number of fatalities involving elderly have increased by 19.6% and 21.7% respectively. In this case, LED lights will be only benefit the elderly only in traffic junction due to visual hindrance which prevents some of them from seeing the traffic signal from far. Even with the help of the senior citizen concession pass, which can be used to extend the duration of road crossing, accidents are still happening whereby the driver fails to notice and give way to the elderly pedestrian.

Next, the key problems of accidents involving elderly are jaywalking and irresponsible drivers. SPF also indicated that the number of accidents involving elderly who jaywalked increased by 42.1% in recent years. In addition to that, elderly pedestrian fatalities are usually caused by drivers who are not aware of their surrounding and failed to give way to these pedestrians. Despite certain effort made by the government to educate the elderly on road safety such as introducing the Road Master Test Kit, which is used to test elderly’s physical abilities that impact on their safety on the roads, and Silver Zones, which warns motorists to slow down and implements road initiatives to aid elderly in crossing road, it has not fully addressed the problem as the numbers are not going down. This means that they are still prone to accident from irresponsible driver who fails to keep a look out. I feel that government should step up their effort in imposing heavy punishments for motorists who fail to follow the regulations in the Silver Zones and also to further publicize Test Kit and make it easily available for senior citizen.

In conclusion, although Singapore government came out with certain safety measures to ensure road safety of the people, it is evident that the accidents involving elderly are not showing signs of improvements. Therefore, they should be more focused on the safety of the elderly by enforcing stringent road regulations and improving existing programmes.

Reference:

Tan, Christopher. “Floor lights help 'smartphone zombies' keep eye on the road.” The Straits Times, 9 May 2017, www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/floor-lights-help-smartphone-zombies-keep-eye-on-the-road. Accessed 15 Sept. 2017.

''Annual Road Traffic Situation 2016" Singapore Police Force, 15 February 2017, https://www.police.gov.sg/~/media/spf/files/statistics/20170215_stats_road_traffic_situation_2016.pdf Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Land Transport Authority, n.d,

https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltaweb/en/roads-and-motoring/projects/road-and-commuter-facilities/silver-zones.html

Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Summary for "Floor Lights"

According to “Floor lights help ‘smartphone zombies’ keep eye on the road”, (Tan, 2017), new LED strips are installed at 2 pedestrian crossings on a half-year trial in order to raise awareness of road safety for 'smartphone zombies'.

According to the Traffic Police (2017), the accident rates were at a 4 year high with pedestrian accidents making one-third of all fatal road accidents. Senior researcher, Menon (2017) mentioned that many pedestrians are hooked to their phones, so any method to better the safety of pedestrians are welcomed. Tan then states that the new feature will make crossing easier and safer with the assistance of the LED strips. I agree with the writer to a certain extent that the new safety system implemented would aid ‘smartphone zombies’ to cross the road safer and reduce road accidents.

However, I feel that the focus should be on elderly due to the increasing number of fatal road accidents involving them in recent years and LED floor light is definitely not beneficial to them.

Reference:

Tan, Christopher. “Floor lights help 'smartphone zombies' keep eye on the road.” The Straits Times, 9 May 2017, www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/floor-lights-help-smartphone-zombies-keep-eye-on-the-road. Accessed 15 Sept. 2017.