Phones changing the way we walk

Mobile phones are causing people to change the way they walk to reduce the risk of tripping, a study has found.

Subjects were fitted with eye trackers to record where they looked and motion analysis sensors to record how they walked as they used a phone while negotiating a floorbased obstacle similar in height to a roadside kerb.

Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University found that when using a phone, irrespective of how it is being used, people look less frequently at the obstacle on the ground.