Vivolit, home Reserve VIP

Coming to Kickstarter · Designed in Toronto

Toronto Live Map Wood by day. The city's trains by night.

A 20 × 16 inch map of Toronto, laser-engraved in birch, with one small light in every subway station. Hang it, connect it to Wi-Fi, and a station glows each time a train pulls in.

Reserve VIP for C$1 Tell me when it launches

VIP price C$199, at least 33% off the C$299 retail price. The C$1 is refundable at any time.

The Toronto Live Map hanging on a wall in a light wooden frame: an engraved birch map of Toronto with coloured lights along every subway line, neighbourhood names, and Lake Ontario drawn in contour lines
The working prototype, photographed on a wall. It is in one of its colour modes here, with every station lit. In Live mode a station lights only when a train is there.

Up close

The shoreline, the islands, the ravines and the lines are engraved into the wood. In Live mode, a station lights as a train pulls in and fades as it leaves. Between trains, it is a quiet wooden map.

Close-up of the engraved title, Toronto Live Map, above Willowdale, with pink and orange station lights set into the birch
Engraved lettering, one light per station.
Close-up of Lake Ontario engraved as rippling contour lines around the Leslie Street Spit, below The Beaches, The Danforth and Leslieville
Lake Ontario, drawn in contour lines.
The framed map seen from the side, showing the depth of the wooden frame and the engraved Lake Ontario lettering
A slim frame that sits close to the wall.
A white USB-C cable plugged into a socket in the bottom edge of the wooden frame
One USB-C cable, at the bottom edge.

Photos of the working prototype. Frame and finishing details may change before production.

How it works

  1. Hang it, plug it in

    It hangs like a picture. One USB-C cable powers it.

  2. Give it your Wi-Fi, once

    The phone app finds the map over Bluetooth and hands over your network. After that the map fetches the train data by itself.

  3. Forget about it

    Unplug it, plug it back in, and it finds its way back. Open the app only to change the brightness, the colours or the light mode.

Live trains, or a calm glow

Live mode shows the trains. When you would rather have something calm, pick a soft glow, a slow tour of the lines or a colour show, like the one in the photo above. The app is for setting up and for settings. There is no account and no subscription.

  • Live trains on Lines 1, 2 and 4
  • A warm night-light glow and other light modes
  • Brightness, from a glow to off, plus a night schedule
  • iPhone and Android
App screen showing the map of Toronto with the subway lines and a selected station
App screenshot, demo data
App controls: mode buttons and a brightness slider
App screenshot, demo data

VIP reservation · C$1, refundable

VIP: guaranteed at least 33% off the retail price

Reserve a VIP spot with a C$1 deposit. On launch day you get a private link to the VIP reward on Kickstarter, before anyone else. Changed your mind? Email info@vivolit.ca and we refund the C$1, any time.

Payment is handled by Stripe; we never see your card. Read the reservation terms.

Where it stands, honestly

Working today

  • A full-size engraved birch map in a frame, with our own circuit board and all 108 lights
  • Live trains: the map fetches the open data by itself
  • The phone app with its light modes, on our own phones

Still to do

  • Final frame, back and packaging
  • Electrical safety approval and radio-interference testing
  • App store releases

Good to know

  • Train positions are estimated from open data that updates about once a minute. It can be late or wrong. It is art, not a trip planner
  • Lines 1, 2 and 4 are live now. Line 5 is being added. Line 6 lights stay dark until data is published

Details

Size
Map 508 × 406 mm (20 × 16 in), plus the frame
Face
Baltic birch, laser-engraved
Lights
108, one in each station
Connection
2.4 GHz Wi-Fi; Bluetooth for setup
Power
USB-C, 5 V; cable included
Made
Designed and hand-finished in Toronto. Electronics made in China
Planned price
Retail C$299 after the campaign. C$249 on Kickstarter. VIP reservers: C$199, at least 33% off retail
Shipping
Canada and the USA. A digital supporter tier is open worldwide

Be told when it launches

The first batch will be small. Leave an email and you will hear the day before it goes live. It is free.

Questions

Is this a TTC live map?

It shows live TTC subway data: the Toronto Transit Commission publishes its subway data openly, and the map reads it directly over your Wi-Fi. It is an independent product by Vivolit, a small Toronto company. It is not an official map and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), the City of Toronto or Metrolinx.

How accurate is "live"?

The public feed updates about once a minute and gives expected arrival times. The map estimates where each train is from that. Expect "at or near this station". Sometimes a train is missing because it is missing from the data.

What is the C$1 VIP reservation?

A refundable C$1 deposit that reserves a VIP spot. On launch day you get a private link to the VIP reward, C$199, at least 33% off the C$299 retail price. It is not a purchase: you back the campaign on Kickstarter as usual. Email info@vivolit.ca at any time for your C$1 back. Details are in the reservation terms.

Does it need a subscription or an account?

No. The map talks to the public feed directly.

Will it work if I don't live in Toronto?

Yes, anywhere with Wi-Fi. The first campaign ships to Canada and the USA; other countries may follow. Anyone, anywhere, can join the digital supporter tier.

When can I buy one?

It is not for sale yet. We plan a Kickstarter campaign in early 2027 and delivery later that year. Dates will be confirmed by email.

Are these photos real?

Yes. They are phone photos of the working prototype. In the large photo the map is in one of its colour modes, with every station lit; in Live mode only the stations with a train light up. The frame and some finishing details may change before production.