How headphones may save your life on road in future
Using headphones while walking or driving on the road amid all that traffic is advised against as these devices distract you and can be the catalyst for accidents and mishaps. But how about if the headphones you were wearing alerted you about an approaching vehicle thus prompting you to move away in time. Such a smart device is under works at the data Science Institute at Columbia University with a prototype currently being tested on the streets of New York. The researchers have got about 1.2 million as funds for this project.
So how do these headphones detect outside sound. With the help of very small microphones that take in the traffic noise and through intelligent signal processing send a sound alert to the headphones. The researchers working at the project claim to have employed latest data science techniques so as to develop advanced signal processing mechanisms. Also these smart headphones would be able to identify hundreds of acoustic cues of nearby vehicles with the help of machine learning models installed on the users smartphone.
An article on the Columbia University website says The headphones have miniature microphones and intelligent signal processing that detects sounds of approaching vehicles. If a hazard appears near the system sends an audio alert to the pedestrians headphones.
Globally there have been a lot of deaths due to wearing earphones or headphones while walking on the road. While the best option still seems to be to avoid wearing them while walking this research seems to be hopeful about the ability of people being lost in the audio world and alert at the same time in traffic.
