“Third Eye” .. an innovation that prevents collision while walking for phone addicts

A South Korean designer has developed a robotic eyeball that can be attached to a person’s forehead, allowing him to browse a mobile phone while walking without injury.

The device, called the “third eye”, senses when the user’s head is lowered to look at the phone, and when a person approaches an obstacle within one or two meters, the device beeps to warn him of danger.

Baeng, a graduate student in Innovation Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London – has been experimenting with a third eye across Seoul.

The third eye uses a gyroscope sensor to measure the angle of the user’s neck and an ultrasonic sensor to calculate the distance between the robotic eye and obstacles, both sensors linked to a single-board open source microcontroller with battery.

Designer Min Wook Baing, 28, said that this new innovation will be a solution for smartphone addicts, who cannot take their eyes off the phone screen while walking, which makes them more vulnerable to collisions.

“This is humanity’s future vision, with three eyes,” Baing said, adding that “since we can’t take our eyes off smartphones, more eyes will be needed in the future.”

“These days, young people can have accidents while using their mobile phones. This would be a useful solution for them,” he added.