Modern cars, particularly hybrids at low speeds, are becoming quieter and quieter, posing a great threat to visually impaired pedestrians, who solely use sound to determine the safety of crossing a street. To address this problem, we propose a dualistic solution of both quiet cars adapting to visually impaired pedestrians and vice versa. The first aspect of our solution is for quiet cars to emit sounds sounding like the familiar combustion engine cars for pedestrians to judge their presence. The second aspect is for quiet cars to alert pedestrians of their presence via a Bluetooth connection to the pedestrians’ cell phones, with the cell phones providing a vibratory signal to indicate the cars’ presence. The redundant nature of our dual solution increases the safety to pedestrians. The system implementation which we propose will help these individuals maintain their independence and mobility while not subjecting them to additional costs. (Author/publisher)
Abstract