SMART CROSSINGS

A company called Umbrellium has set up an interactive crossing at Starling Cross in South London. While it uses familiar and understandable road markings and colours, the Starling Crossing reacts dynamically in real time to different conditions, and is able to modify the patterns, layout, configuration, size and orientation of pedestrian crossings in order to prioritise pedestrian safety. The entire road surface at the crossing area is monitored by cameras and embedded with computercontrolled LEDs that can be seen from all angles, during both day and night.

Using a neural network framework, cameras track objects moving across the road surface, distinguishing between pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, calculating their precise locations, trajectories and velocities and anticipating where they may move to in the next moment.

At different times of day, and in different situations, the road can alter its configuration in real time. When there are fewer pedestrians, the crossing may only appear when people approach, guiding them to the crossing location that it has learned over time to be the safest, leaving the road otherwise free for vehicular traffic.