As reported on Engadget.
By Joe Pollicino
The payphone. Despite how connected our world has gotten in the last decade or so, the majority of the 11,000 payphones in NYC stem from a 1999 contract. Due to expire and renew in October 2014, the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) has been actively figuring out how and what type of modern solution it wants to replace roughly all 11,000 of them with. You’ve heard about a small number being retrofitted with WiFi hotspots and SmartScreeninformation portals, but those have essentially been tests.
Last night at Quirky’s offices, the city picked out finalists for five categories that could possibly help “Reinvent Payphones” here in the Big Apple: “connectivity, creativity, visual design, functionality and community impact.” Well over 120 entries were submitted since this design challenge kicked off last December at the NY Tech Meetup, with a total of 11 semifinalists having gotten the chance to present their ideas last night for judging. As it turns out, there was a tie for community impact, leaving six finalists overall. Better yet, out of those six, the public can take to Facebook from now until March 14th to select a “popular vote” winner. Curious for more insight? We got to chat with the city’s Director of External Affairs at the Department of Information, Nicholas Sbordone, about the project and he talked about how it went down and what it means for the future of payphones in NYC.
Unlike the Taxi of Tomorrow, there isn’t exactly a winner coming from this event that’ll provide a final design. As Mr. Sbordone explained to us, this whole competition mainly helps the city get insight from those outside of the telecommunication industry. One such avenue of ideas came from when the city initially sent out an RFI (request for info) back in July to coincide with the announcement of retrofitting WiFi hotspots to select payphones — respondents included the likes of community boards and current franchise owners. He noted that “as [the] w works to determine the overall future of the public pay telephone, [it’s] facilitating a number of pilot programs (at no taxpayer cost) which use existing payphone infrastructure to gauge public interest and feedback in the services offered.”
Overall, the city is trying to get input from as many avenues as possible. As Sbordone puts it, “[the city]’ll take the results of all the ongoing efforts above, plus the best ideas from the Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge winners and then bake all of it into the City’s formal solicitation (known as a Request for Proposals, or ‘RFP’) for the future of the payphone. We’ll look to issue that RFP later this year.” The point is, all of these together is what’ll help shape the guidelines for what the city wants in its payphone kiosks come October 2014.
Background aside and, getting back to the event, each of the 11 semifinalists got a chance to show off their conceptual ideas, which served as their key presentation to the city. Sbordone explained to us that those awarded with a certificate for any of the categories reflect what the city sees as the most promising ideas, but that it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll play a bigger role in shaping the final spec requirements.
So onto the five finalists. The acclaimed folks from Frog Design won the visual design category with Beacon. One of our favorites of the bunch — the 12-foot tall structure would, at street level, featuring a gesture and voice controlled LED screen, and some physical buttons for the likes of catching a cab or calling emergency services. Living up to its name, the upper portion provides light to the sidewalk down below, while also serving up advertisement space. Better yet, a solar-charged battery backup keeps it running if the power goes out.
The connectivity category got snatched up by a concept project dubbed NYfi. The stainless steel structure would serve up a smartphone-like UI on its touchscreen — like a phone loaded with information and traveling apps. Along its sides, replaceable modules would be able to serve up Metrocards and parking cards, while an array of programmable LED lights on its top could be used to display various information symbols. As as an added bonus, the base of the unit would also serve as a conduit box for the city’s electrical and communications workers.
NYfi and Beacon seem like ideas that would fit right on the street as is, but the creativity category went to FX FOWLE’s NY Loop, thanks to its slightly adaptable and open design approach. Looking like a walk-though telephone booth in stature, the unit could project ads that bleed onto the sidewalk on one side, while leaving space for the likes of greenery to be affixed on the other side with a spot for a seat to top it off. Standing inside would give users access to a touchscreen information / phone interface, with a built-in sound wall for some isolation from the busy streets. The edges of the units would also allow pedestrians to plug-in and recharge their devices.
That tie for community impact we spoke about earlier highlights two of of the most unusual approaches of the bunch. NYC I/O’s Minority Report style of interaction and Windchimes’ Arduino-packing payphone / environment monitor had the judges split. The minimalistic approach to Windchimes is a nice change of pace to the giant smartphone-type designs from many of the demos. While it appears like it would be right at home in a treehouse, we won’t be shocked if weather-sensors appear in the city’s future payphones. Plus, we’re digging the nostalgia of the physical number buttons in this world of touchscreens and control gestures.
Lastly, Smart Sidewalk took home the certificate for functionality — and we can’t disagree. Serving the simi The svelte kiosk would get placed on the curb, with the ground below it serving to handle and filter runoff water from the street. Two solar panels provide it with energy no matter where the sun is facing. Gesture controls would be incorporated and users would be able to adjust the height of the Windows Phone-esque UI on its touchscreen, while a braille keyboard would be included below it. As you’d expect, the interface would allow you to get local info and maps, browse the web and more apps would be able to get added for additional functionality. Living up to its name, a strip of LEDS would be placed across the sidewalk at its position to provide various types of location information to anyone walking by (sort of like those end zone markers on you see when watching football on your TV). The sides would allow for the likes of USB charging, WiFi connectivity and credit card swiping, and seemed to be a norm for many of the demos.
If you want to cast a vote for your favorite idea, you’ll have until 5:00PM ET on March 14th to make your digital voice heard at NYC.gov’s Facebook page linked below — this is also where you can get the full details about each of the finalists’ projects. The winner will be announced the next day — and who knows, one of these concepts might end up being somewhat of a reality in late 2014. For more info on the judges involved, all 11 semifinalists that presented and the initiative as a while, check out the press releases below.