Technology solution for the most pedestrian-hostile cities
Seen on a bumper sticker: "If you don't like the way I drive, get off the sidewalk."
Drivers with such an attitude shouldn't be behind the wheel, of course. But even the most conscientious drivers may have difficulties navigating around cities or areas that aren't laid out well for safe pedestrian traffic. SmartPlanet colleague Andrew Nusca just posted a list of the safest and least safest cities for pedestrians, noting that Stockholm, Berlin, and Tokyo have the fewest fatality rates. US cities including Atlanta, Detroit and Los Angeles have the dubious distinction of being the worse cities for pedestrians.
Maybe technology can help here.
Mobileye Products reports that it has developed a vehicle-mounted camera with software that can sense the presence of a pedestrian and alert the driver within three seconds -- in many cases, providing time to swerve out of the way.
A report in PCWorld describes Mobileye's pedestrian alert feature, now built into its C2-270 collision-avoidance device, is based on algorithms that are used to analyze photos taken 15 times per second. The camera mounts on the inside of a vehicle's windshield, and the visual and audio alert piece mounts on the dashboard.
As Ilan Yavor, marketing and communications manager for Mobileye, describes it:
"The processor inside the device determines by shape what the object in the road is, whether it is a pedestrian, cyclist or motorbike. We are basically teaching the little computer how to recognize these objects and then determine if there is potential danger there. The C2-270 will then issue audio and visual warnings, giving drivers enough time to avert a collision."
Not a moment too soon for an innovation such as this. The US Federal Highway Administration estimates that 6,000 pedestrians are killed annually by vehicles, in the United States alone, while another 110,000 suffer injuries.
This reminds me of similar technology that also saves lives in another way. The Poseidon surveillance system, developed a few years back by Vision IQ is an underwater surveillance system, based on cameras and real-time analytics that can detect and alert when a body goes motionless or appears to be thrashing about. The product employs underwater and overhead cameras and "proprietary computer vision technology" -- such as 3D imaging software -- to monitor swimmers' trajectories. The software can detect "suspicious situations, such as a slowly sinking or immobile victim, and trigger an alarm."
Potentially saving thousands of lives? Sounds like a pretty good return on investment.
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com