WalkSafe: A Pedestrian Safety App for Mobile Phone Users Who Walk and Talk While Crossing Roads

Research in social science has shown that mobile phone conversations distract users, presenting a significant impact to pedestrian safety; for example, a mobile phone user deep in conversation while crossing a street is generally more at risk than other pedestrians not engaged in such behavior. The authors propose WalkSafe, an Android Smartphone application that aids people that walk and talk, improving the safety of pedestrian mobile phone users. WalkSafe uses the back camera of the mobile phone to detect vehicles approaching the user, alerting the user of a potentially unsafe situation.