Inter-vehicle communication attachment for cell phones to help pedestrian safety

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Oki Electric Industry Co on Thursday announced the development of the world’s first DSRC1 inter-vehicle communication attachment for cell phones to enable pedestrian and vehicle communication. By connecting the safety mobile phone attachment to mobile phones, pedestrians can directly exchange location information with vehicles with inter-vehicle communication system.

“We have a strong technology base in inter-vehicle communication and are currently working on developing a ‘SPAN System,’ which is a system for person and vehicle communication for road safety. We are working to improve safety for vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and bicycle riders, which account for more than 40% of the total number of people killed through traffic accidents,” said Masayoshi Matsushita, Oki senior vice president. “In 2007 we developed the safety mobile phone and now we are pleased to announce the development of the world’s first safety mobile phone attachment that enables intercommunication between vehicles and pedestrians.”

The attachment was developed based on the safety mobile phone system. It is compatible with GPS (Global Positioning System) technology and can send positioning data via DSRC. When the attachment receives a DSRC data packet from a vehicle, it will transmit the information to the mobile phone via UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter). Likewise, by sending commands to the attachment via UART, mobile phones can transmit specific DSRC packet information. Thus, by connecting the attachment to an external device that has a UART interface, such as a mobile phone, users can develop applications on that platform.

The attachment comes not only with a GPS receiver but also an acceleration sensor and a magnetic sensor which enable users to develop improved positioning performance such as to supplement GPS positioning or inertial navigation.

In addition, Oki was able to prevent radio attenuation caused by the human body when a 5GHz bandwidth DSRC communication device is incorporated in a cell phone. By embedding antennas in the phone strap that pedestrians use for hanging their phones from their neck, radio attenuation can be prevented because two antennas (one in front of the body and the other one behind the body) are provided.

By using this product, a pedestrian will notify nearby vehicles of his or her location and obtain their location through the DSRC inter-vehicle communication function. In addition, the attachment and phone can alert the users beforehand when the positioning of the person and vehicle may lead to a traffic accident.