An Interaction Concept for Wearable Low-resolution LED Displays to Increase Traffic Safety

Traffic safety is a major concern of our society. Especially making traffic safe for weak, nonmotorized traffic participants, such as skaters, bikers and pedestrians, is important as accidents with these often result in serious, if not fatal, injuries. Traffic safety can be improved by attaching LED displays to the body. To demonstrate this a wearable smart light for increased traffic safety has been created that combines acceleration sensors with an array of LEDs. To exemplify the use of the device three apps have been developed. These three apps increase the safety of people wearing the device in traffic. Detailed investigations have been conducted researching the form-factor, favored placement, need for feedback and visibility. This thesis investigates the combination of wearable computing in a way that sensor input gives directly evaluated feedback to the user and surrounding people. It is described how to create a user interface that doesn't utilize an LCD display, but instead shows information on a low-resolution LED display. Also communication between traffic participants, wearing the LED display, is evaluated for different use cases