April 07, 2024

Cross with Care, without Bluetooth


Cross with Care, without Bluetooth
Loud, but maybe not louder than the heavy metal you're listening to. The Russian Life files.

Student researchers at the Southern Federal University in Rostov are close to perfecting technology that would mute Bluetooth devices at pedestrian train crossings.

According to an Izvestia article, a wireless signal box would be placed near a crossing that would interfere with and disrupt wireless signals. This would ideally prevent train accidents caused by oblivious headphone-wearers.

Testing is set to begin in the coming months on the North Caucasus Railway. Researchers will deploy the gadget alongside a video camera. If a Bluetooth-user nearby stops to check their device or fiddle with their headphones, they'll take that as a sign that their music or phone call has suddenly cut out.

Russia has a relationship with Bluetooth dating back a millennium — that is, Harald Bluetooth, the ranging Norse adventurer whose travels took him through modern Russian lands in the Middle Ages and for whom the modern technology is named.

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