Skip to main content

T-Box annunciator

The T-Box, from Mentor Engineering, is a state-of-the-art text-to-speech voice annunciation device for fixed-route transit ITS solutions. It provides next-stop announcements and updates onboard LED signs for riders inside the bus. Outside the vehicle, T-Box identifies the route and destination to passengers waiting at a stop when the doors open. Simple to use, the device speaks phrases entered via a text file in English, French, or Spanish, saving agencies time and money on recording studios and voice talen
June 19, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The T-Box, from 691 Mentor Engineering, is a state-of-the-art text-to-speech voice annunciation device for fixed-route transit ITS solutions. It provides next-stop announcements and updates onboard LED signs for riders inside the bus. Outside the vehicle, T-Box identifies the route and destination to passengers waiting at a stop when the doors open. Simple to use, the device speaks phrases entered via a text file in English, French, or Spanish, saving agencies time and money on recording studios and voice talent. Agencies can preview and fine-tune pronunciations using a desktop-based text-to-speech programme which allows for the creation of custom dictionaries. T-Box will also play pre-recorded WAV files and convert abbreviations into fully spoken text.

In addition, messages can be transmitted in real time to an entire fleet wirelessly, and updates can be performed with low-cost Wi-Fi in an agency's bus yard. According to Mentor Engineering, T-Box removes the need to physically visit the vehicle for upgrades, allowing an agency to achieve enormous time savings.

T-Box will reduce driver distraction by automatically announcing any message an agency may need to broadcast to its passengers. It also monitors ambient noise in the bus and self-adjusts speaker volume to ensure that messages are always heard.

Related Content

  • Transit signal priority improves travel times in Memphis
    August 13, 2014
    The installation of Global Traffic Technologies’ (GTT) Opticom GPS transit signal priority (TSP) along the two busiest transit corridors in Memphis is helping many of the tens of thousands of the city’s transit users reach their destination in less time.
  • Priority for safety and interoperability, need for DSRC
    July 18, 2012
    Justin McNew, Chief Technology Officer, Kapsch TrafficCom Inc., USA offers his opinion of where 5.9GHz DSRC technology will head in the coming years. The debate ranges back and forth over the most suitable technological solution for future tolling and charging in the US. However, the coming trend is common cooperative infrastructure: instrumented roads and vehicles with the capacity to communicate with each other over all manner of safety, mobility and traveller applications, many of which will involve fina
  • Seminar urges the use of smart road technologies in Oman
    May 24, 2013
    The recent Smart Road Technologies seminar in Oman discussed the development of transportation systems, not just the construction of new roads or infrastructure renovation, but also the use of information technology to link elements within the road system - vehicles, roads, traffic lights, message signs, among others – using intelligent technology to enable them to communicate with each other via wireless technologies. The seminar was held as part of the Digital Nation series of seminars organised by Knowle
  • RouteMatch Software acquires RouteShout
    February 3, 2012
    RouteMatch Software has announced its acquisition of RouteShout, an award-winning traveller information systems (TIS) product developed by interactive mobility pioneers Deeplocal, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-out.