OKI Develops Device Enabling Cars to 'Talk' to Each Other, Pedestrians Too

The idea of a vehicle actually “talking” to its owner seemed a bit far-fetched up until the recent years (if we're completely disregarding Sci-Fi movies and the Knight Rider series, of course), but it would seem that OKI has managed to actually develope exactly such a system, called the Simple and Compact IVC Unit, which enables direct communication between vehicles and between vehicles and pedestrians. By using this product, a driver will notify nearby vehicles of his or her location from the embedded GPS and obtain their location through the inter-vehicle communication function. In addition, the product standalone can alert the users beforehand when the positioning of the person and vehicle may lead to a traffic accident. This technology will contribute to intercommunication system for pedestrians, roads and vehicles and will contribute to reducing accidents for the vulnerable road users. "We are pleased to announce further enhancements in the hardware for the Safety Mobile Phone Attachment for the Simple and Compact IVC unit designed for automotive use," said Yoshiyuki Gondou, General Manager of Intelligent Transport Systems and Safety Systems Division at OKI. “The unit measures 50mm x 57 mm x 26 mm, approximately one-eleventh the size of the conventional 5.8Ghz bandwidth inter-vehicle communication devices previously developed by OKI." "In addition, the device incorporates, as integral components, parts previously connected externally by cables, such as antennas for inter-vehicle communications, LEDs/buzzer that display the status of various services, a GPS receiver and antenna, accelerometer, and a gyro sensor, eliminating the need for externally connected devices and simplifying vehicle mounting,” added Mr. Gondou, also sayin that they “expect the unit to be attached in upper area of the instrumental panels and windshields." Unfortunately, there's no mention on the possible pricing and market availability for this thing, but we're certainly looking forward to seeing the device from OKI making its way onto the market in the near future.