When I arrived in Finland in early 2006, the local trains in the Helsinki area already did this routinely, in the form of automatic announcements when approaching stations. The Metro line restricts itself to reading out the name of the approaching station, while the mainline commuter trains also announce interchange information when approaching certain junction stations.
Announcement example, approximate translation:
Next is Pasila.
Express trains to Tampere and Kouvola, and local trains to Lahti and Riihimäki, leave from Platforms 3 and 4. Local trains to Tikkurila and Kerava leave from Platform 2.
Two of the stations (Ilmala and Pasila) are sufficiently close together that the announcement point for Pasila for trains not stopping at Ilmala is roughly alongside Ilmala - but trains that do stop at Ilmala also start to play the Pasila announcement while pulling into Ilmala platform. This is strong evidence that the announcements are triggered at a specific distance from each station, rather than incorporating additional data such as the speed of the train. As a workaround, the Pasila announcement for stopping trains has a long period of silence at the beginning, so that the announcement is less confusing.
Let's cover the claim step by step:
a computer determining that a device of a person is within a predetermined distance of a location, based on data received from the device;
Check, based on the above evidence. I believe it is done using a combination of GPS and wheel-rotation data, but that is not essential.
the computer identifying the at least one of the person and the device, based on the received data;
The "device" is the moving train that the computer is fitted to, so it is implicitly identified. Additionally, the computer has been told by the traincrew in advance which stopping pattern the train is due to execute.
the computer associating the at least one of the person and the device with the location;
Check.
the computer generating a message based on the association; and
A recorded announcement is selected...
the computer communicating the message to the person.
...and played back over the internal PA system for the benefit of passengers.
