Pedestrian walking safety system based on smartphone built-in sensors

People watching smartphones while walking causes a significant impact to their safety. Pedestrians staring at smartphone screens while walking along the sidewalk are generally more at risk than other pedestrians not engaged in smartphone usage. In this study, the authors propose Safe Walking, an Android smartphone-based system that detects the walking behaviour of pedestrians by leveraging the sensors and front camera on smartphones, improving the safety of pedestrians staring at smartphone screens. More specifically, Safe Walking first exploits a pedestrian speed calculation algorithm by sampling acceleration data via the accelerometer and calculating gravity components via the gravity sensor. Then, this system utilises a greyscale image detection algorithm to detect the face and eye movement modes based on OpenCV4Android to determine if pedestrians are staring at the screens. Finally, Safe Walking generates a vibration by a vibrator on smartphones to alert pedestrians to pay attention to road conditions. The authors implemented Safe Walking on an Android smartphone and evaluated pedestrian walking speed, the accuracy of eye movement, and system performance. The results show that Safe Walking can prevent the potential danger for pedestrians staring at smartphone screens with a true positive rate of 91%.