Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Walk Buttons: The Light That Waits For You


Crying out loud: GPS, so good that it knows when you are still in the walkway. Did anybody say it was not accurate enough? Put GPS nodes at the traffic corner. People did not call them mobiles, so that you only play stationary games, like frogger.

The mobile recognizes when you move, so it knows when the volume needs adjustment. Do you have that app? The one that lets you have primary and secondary volumes, not where you manually switch between normal and vibration mode. When the phone recognizes movement, it then automates the adjustment between minimum and maximum volumes.

The same trigger that sets the adjustment is useful for other actions. The trigger only detects the difference in location. When there is any, it then bluntly triggers actions. The actions triggered then decide if it records those differences. One action may dial into the walk button nearby.

[Also note the car's turn signal as another action.]

Smart traffic signals may provide or give feedback to the conditions at the intersection. If somebody uses the walk app such that it dials the walk button for the request, then that anticipates change in the conditions. I imagined an intersection that all vehicles, and people with mobiles, network with each other through each nearby traffic signal. I then reduced that image to reality of present conditions.

We need said technically trained people for how we improve conditions for business. How many traffic signals, now, expect only cars and not people unless somebody touches the walk button? I doubt the smarter car is the best place to begin, so that people can cross the road easier, not when there is much room for improvement at the intersection.

[Note that some universities have axed their computer science division or at least the arts of it.]

Yes, I wondered about the cost of walk button replacements as the minimal hardware change, and then I realized another attractive subsidization. The other path gets into cars that never have been sat-in, especially before and while it is at the dealership, such that it redefined “used” vehicles. I also imagined generic bike-apps. I also imagined hybrid version of all these paths, as one improved condition, but some lights still do not wait long enough.