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

Related Content

  • September 29, 2016
    ITF presents latest results on impacts of shared urban mobility
    Speaking at the World Mobility Leadership Forum in Detroit this week, José Viegas, Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum (ITF) will tell world mobility leaders that smart methods for sharing vehicles hold the key to solving a city’s mobility issues, from congestion and air quality to better access to jobs or education. According to ITF, most negative impacts of current urban mobility patterns stem from the extraordinarily inefficient use of the private car. While a car is one of the most
    Read More
  • January 25, 2012
    Machine vision - cameras for intelligent traffic management
    For some, machine vision is the coming technology. For others, it’s already here. Although it remains a relative newcomer to the ITS sector, its effects look set to be profound and far-reaching. Encapsulating in just a few short words the distinguishing features of complex technologies and their operating concepts can sometimes be difficult. Often, it is the most subtle of nuances which are both the most important and yet also the most easily lost. Happily, in the case of machine vision this isn’t the case:
    Read More
  • April 20, 2017
    Increased automation is already improving road safety
    Richard Cuerden considers how many of the technologies developed as part of a move toward autonomous vehicles are already being deployed as ADAS improve road safety. The drive to create autonomous vehicles has caused a re-evaluation of what is needed to safely navigate today’s roads and the development of systems that can replace the driver in many scenarios. However, many manufacturers are not waiting for ‘tomorrow’ and are already incorporating these systems in their new cars as Advanced Driver Assistanc
    Read More
  • March 17, 2017
    Better websites build smarter transport participation
    Transport initiatives are gaining traction through well-designed websites. Four European smart transport-oriented websites have gained honours in the 2016 .eu Web Awards, an online competition inaugurated in 2014 to recognise the most impressive sites within the .eu internet domain in terms of their design and content. The four were among 15 finalists across all five categories of the scheme, giving the transport sector a high profile for its proactive use of sites as communications tools for driving major
    Read More

Highlighted Content