Safeway

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During the IDE project at Industrial Design Engineering, we were tasked with exploring possibilities of using needs of exposed groups and use those needs to develop a product which enriches the lives of all people. The project was soon directed towards increased safety in traffic for pedestrians and bicylists by using the senses. Most products are directed towards the automobile drivers, not the pedestrians and bicyclists, and still these latter groups are much more exposed to danger. More and more people use their smart phone while they are biking or walking to text, listen to music and update their social media profiles. This is especially dangerous in heavily travelled areas. We developed a triangulation and warning system which uses the built in wifi of cars and cell phones to locate pedestrians, bikers and automobile drivers in relation to each other, and send out a warning if there is an impending danger. The warning is given as an overlay on the screen and as an audio warning. The warning overlay is removed once the user has tapped their cell phone screen.

Projektet inriktades mot att öka säkerheten i trafiken, speciellt för fotgängare och cyklister, genom förstärkning av sinnena. Det finns redan många utvecklingsprojekt inriktat på att låta bilar upptäcka fotgängare, men inte för fotgängare att upptäcka bilister. Många av dagens fotgängare begränsar frivilligt sina sinnen i en potentiellt mycket farlig miljö, genom att smsa, lyssna på musik och blogga samtidigt som de går. En stor del av befolkningen har alltså frivilligt eller ofrivilligt en nedsatt förmåga att upptäcka faror i trafiken.

The team consisted of me, Louise Johansson and Johan Magnusson. The project was carried out in cooperation with Shift Design & Strategy, and was presented at Teknikföretagens Mässa.

All stakeholders are triangulated against each other to detect imminent dangers

The users can change the settings in the app to ensure that the app behaviour is well suited to their needs

The overlay shows which direction the danger comes from. By tapping the screen, the overlay is removed.

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