Columbia develops VRU headphone safety system

The Data Science Institute (DSI) at New York’s Columbia University is designing an intelligent headphone system that uses miniature microphones and intelligent signal processing to detect sounds of approaching vehicles.
By Ben Spencer February 11, 2020 Read time: 1 min
intelligent headphone system (Source: Columbia University's Data Science Institute)

The institute says the system will be able to send an audio alert to the pedestrian’s headphones if a hazard appears near. 

The headset will also include a low-power data pipeline to process sounds near the pedestrian. This pipeline will also contain a custom-integrated circuit that extracts relevant features from the sounds while using little battery power, the institute adds.  

Machine learning models on the user’s smartphone will classify acoustic cues from city streets and nearby vehicles to warm users of danger. 

The prototype was awarded a £1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation and is being tested on streets close to Columbia. 

DSI’s Fred Jiang says the project will aim to develop a prototype of the smart headphone system and then transfer the technology to a commercial company. 

“We hope that, once refined, the technology will be commercialised and mass produced in a way that will help cities reduce pedestrian fatalities,” Jiang adds. 

Networking & Communication Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Anywhere card delivers prepaid contactless ticketing
    January 25, 2012
    David Crawford investigates a far reaching initiative in integrated travel. The Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), an operator of high speed commuter rail in the north eastern US, is not one of the world's best known transit providers. Its 13 stations along a single east-west route (three of them interchanges with other regional commuter lines) handle 40,000 passengers a day, travelling to and from Philadelphia, the US' fifth most populous city.
    Read More
  • In-vehicle automation of safety compliance and other traffic violations
    January 24, 2012
    David Crawford explores new initiatives in enforcement. Achieving the EU’s new road safety target of reducing road traffic deaths by 50 per cent by 2020 depends on removing legal and institutional barriers to the deployment of new enforcement technologies, stresses Jan Malenstein. The senior ITS Adviser to Dutch National Police Agency the KLPD, and a European-level spokesperson on road and traffic safety, points to the importance of, among other requirements, an effective EUwide type approval process for fr
    Read More
  • New system to prevent Hazchem and over-height vehicles entering tunnel
    August 20, 2015
    An impending move to free-flow charging prompted a search for automated dangerous goods identification and over-height detection systems at the Thames Crossing to the east of London. Manned toll booths are increasingly being consigned to history by the onslaught of all-electronic charging. However, a secondary function of the traditional manned plazas has been to prevent non-compliant vehicles using the facility or to tell a driver that that they need to use a specific lane or wait for an escort. Automating
    Read More
  • How ITS weathers the storm on I-80
    September 7, 2021
    Weather-related closures on Wyoming’s I-80 can cost as much as $11.7m each. But a new initiative is harnessing V2X technology to prevent snow shutting things down
    Read More

Highlighted Content