An Ohio State student says he has made the process of checking for campus area buses both simpler and faster.
Fifth-year computer science engineering student Patrick Shuff created osucabs.com, which provides CABS times and locations in a format written specifically for mobile devices.
CABS recently launched an official Web site that tracks the buses in real time and gives arrival estimates, but Shuff said it isn’t suited for handheld devices.
“The official CABS Web site was made more for desktops and doesn’t show up well on mobile devices,” Shuff said. “Mine is made for a screen the size of an iPhone.”
Shuff uses the same information from the official CABS Web site on his site.
A server processes the information for Shuff’s site, which means that mobile devices don’t have to — making mobile downloads faster.
Processing isn’t an issue on a desktop because it has the capacity
to handle it, Shuff said.
The Web site was designed for the Apple iPhone and Verizon Droid but has worked on every other type of phone that used it, Shuff said.
“I use the Web site on my Palm Pre because it is easier to see and gets me the bus times faster,” said Jason Motz, a fifth-year in computer science engineering.
The Web site started as a personal project for Shuff and launched as a public Web site in autumn when more people started to use it. Shuff’s site now receives 50 to 60 hits per day. The site is unaffiliated with the OSU Department of Transportation, but Shuff has spoken with officials about his site.
“The CABS people know about it,” Shuff said. “They just don’t want anything to do with it.”
