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iPhone and Android App Check the Traffic Signals for Blind People

Acoustic traffic signals for blind pedestrians have been around for a while, but despite them being rolled out widely across Japan, the local authorities noticed that accidents still occur.
Japan says acoustic signals are no longer an effective solution 1 photo
Photo: Tulane News - Tulane University
And many of them happen during the night when these are automatically switched to silent mode and thus avoid generating any noise in residential areas.

But the National Police Agency has found a different method to make it even safer for blind pedestrians to cross the street: a smartphone app that connects wirelessly to every single traffic signal at an intersection and then tells the color through the phone’s speaker.

The iPhone and Android mobile app is called Shin GO!, and it uses Bluetooth to connect to a special module installed on the traffic light itself. According to local reports, the Japanese authorities are ready to spend some $24 million in 2021 in order to install such systems in about 2,000 intersections across the country.

The system works as simply as it could. The person holding the phone approaches an intersection, at which point the smartphone establishes the Bluetooth connection and retrieves data from the traffic light.

This data allows it to determine the color of the light and then issues an audio warning to the user. Depending on the light, they are instructed to wait or to cross the intersection, with the app also providing an option to extend the duration of the green light at some specific locations if they need more time to cross.

Certainly, this is as straightforward as possible, and the local government says last year, it already installed such systems at about 70 locations across the country, with another 60 of them activated in 2019.

For now, this idea is only supposed to be used in Japan, but if it’s effective, there’s no doubt authorities from other parts of the world should look into the whole thing and bring it to more regions.

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About the author: Bogdan Popa
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Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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