UT researcher Kien Tjin-Kam-Jet has developed a new journey planner for NS Dutch Railways that has just one search field. It has been dubbed Treinplanner. All you have to do is fill in 'day after tomorrow at 11 o'clock from Enschede to Utrecht', for example, and the journey planner will display all departures and connections. The system can be easily adapted to search through other databases such as booking sites or online stores.
The railway's current journey planner requires users to complete multiple search fields (including arrival and departure station, departure or arrival time and date). All of these extra steps are now a thing of the past. UT researcher Kien Tjin-Kam-Jet has developed Treinplanner, a journey planner that requires filling in just one search field. For example, you can type in 'day after tomorrow at 11 o'clock from Enschede to Utrecht'. The software that Tjin-Kam-Jet developed then parses the request and populates the appropriate search fields on the NS Dutch Railways site. For example, the software translates the phrase 'day after tomorrow' into the actual date and places it in the relevant field.
This new application is part of a broader doctoral research project on how to make database searches easier ('searching the deep web'). Tjin-Kam-Jet is not only researching the technical feasibility of these kinds of systems, but also how users experience them and/or what kind of functionality they want. Part of Tjin-Kam-Jet's research therefore also focuses on the queries his system must process and the overall user experience. Site visitors may be asked to complete a survey on their experiences, for example.
The system can be relatively easily adapted to search through other types of databases, too, such as other travel planners, booking sites or online stores.
Tjin-Kam-Jet is conducting his research with the Database Group at the CTIT Research Institute and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science. The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has provided major funding for his research.
Note to the press
The Treinplanner journey planner can be found at http://snipdex.org/ns. For further details please contact the Science Information Officer, Joost Bruysters, +31(0)53 489 2773 / 06 1048 8228.
