Video: Phone App For Distracted Pedestrians Detects When You’re About to Get Hit By a Car

PopSci - WalkSafe WalkSafe uses vision learning to figure 
out which direction cars are facing and establish whether 
any of them are threats to a distracted user who might 
unwittingly wander into traffic while talking on the phone.

Texting while driving can be deadly. Talking while walking? Also deadly. Or at least threatening enough that researchers at Dartmouth and the University of Bologna thought it necessary to develop a smartphone app that makes it safer. Their Android app uses machine learning and image recognition that takes place right on your phone to alert you when you’re chatting your way right into an oncoming smash-up.

The app uses the outward facing camera on a smartphone to help a pedestrian look both ways (or at least one way). Using vision algorithms built into the app, the system determines which way cars on the roadway are facing and whether or not they are moving, taking into account the tilt of the phone and varying light conditions to establish an accurate picture of the roadway. It then figures out if any approaching vehicle is a threat to the user.

        More