2 HotMobile papers that grabbed us: WalkSafe and SpinLoc

20.03.2012
The recent in San Diego attracted dozens of top mobile technology researchers who presented papers on their latest findings. While we didn't attend the event, a couple of papers jumped out at us while browsing the agenda.

Researchers from Dartmouth University's Mobile Sensing Group and the University of Bologna presented a paper titled "." Their research resulted in a free app called WalkSafe that's been on the Market since last year and that "operates at the intersection of vision, learning and mobile computing."

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The app exploits a mobile phone's back camera to detect approaching vehicles and alert the user, via vibration or sound, of the impending danger. It also uses the phone's accelerometer sensors. The researchers used machine learning algorithms to allow the phone to detect vehicles during active calls. Studies of the app have shown it delivers few false positives, though doesn't identify all oncoming vehicles.

The researchers acknowledge that other apps exist that allow users to text or email and walk by showing the road ahead as a background image, but cite findings that even with such an app phone users are probably too distracted to attend to their own safety. Other apps have been developed to initiate communications between cars and pedestrians, but the researchers say broad implementation would be very involved and "perhaps, unlikely."

Future research includes improving vehicle detection to include bicycles, motor bikes and more, as well as improving detection of vehicles at night, since that's when so many pedestrian accidents occur. Barbara Wang, one of the Dartmouth researchers who is now at Google, says there are no plans to extend the app beyond Android anytime soon.