Car horns are often blamed for contributing to the increase of road rage all across the world, especially as more and more drivers forget they should be used only for emergency situations.
Honk Happy hopes to fix this by providing drivers with a different type of horn, one that’s supposed to no longer startle or anger others but to actually say excuse me.
Currently up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo, Honk Happy is essentially a horn that you can connect to your car in a matter of minutes, albeit in some cases, professional installation might be required to get the wiring right. The button that can be used to activate the horn, however, works with a wireless connection to the main unit, and you can just put it anywhere inside the car using a piece of tape.
Honk Happy uses a lower decibel horn as compared to the standard version installed by manufacturers and features a microcontroller unit that generates a two-tone beep that’s just the same every time. The frequency and the interval have both been configured by an expert sound designer, according to the Indiegogo page.
“Honk Happy was created by a composer and audio specialist John Wierman. He has a background in creating music and sound effects for movie trailers. He created Honk Happy with the knowledge that sounds and tones can bring out certain emotions in people,” the creators of the device explain.
“He found out that these two tones that mimic the tones we use when saying ‘excuse me’, we can get the attention of a distracted driver without the negative or even dangerous road rage reaction.”
The company that built Honk Happy hopes to raise $10,000 to build the device, and right now, some 20 percent of the project has already been funded. If you want to secure a Honk Happy, you can just support the Indiegogo campaign with a $57 donation to receive the super early bird special package.
Currently up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo, Honk Happy is essentially a horn that you can connect to your car in a matter of minutes, albeit in some cases, professional installation might be required to get the wiring right. The button that can be used to activate the horn, however, works with a wireless connection to the main unit, and you can just put it anywhere inside the car using a piece of tape.
Honk Happy uses a lower decibel horn as compared to the standard version installed by manufacturers and features a microcontroller unit that generates a two-tone beep that’s just the same every time. The frequency and the interval have both been configured by an expert sound designer, according to the Indiegogo page.
“Honk Happy was created by a composer and audio specialist John Wierman. He has a background in creating music and sound effects for movie trailers. He created Honk Happy with the knowledge that sounds and tones can bring out certain emotions in people,” the creators of the device explain.
“He found out that these two tones that mimic the tones we use when saying ‘excuse me’, we can get the attention of a distracted driver without the negative or even dangerous road rage reaction.”
The company that built Honk Happy hopes to raise $10,000 to build the device, and right now, some 20 percent of the project has already been funded. If you want to secure a Honk Happy, you can just support the Indiegogo campaign with a $57 donation to receive the super early bird special package.