Few things are more annoying than an endlessly honking horn. German scientists think that maddening sound is a great way to warn people of impending disasters.
The guys at the Fraunhofer Institute for Technological Trend Analysis are working on a way to use automobile horns to, in effect, crowdsource the network of emergency warning sirens that used to cover Germany. Such a system would cost next to nothing to adopt, they say, and could be introduced as early as next year.
The system builds upon the eCall system that will be installed in all new European cars beginning in 2010 under a European Union safety initiative. eCall uses GPS and mobile phone technology to alert first responders of a car accident, and it is expected to reduce the number of traffic fatalities. The same system, the researchers say, can be used to warn the public of forest fires, impending floods, industrial accidents and other emergencies. All it needs is a radio receiver that would trigger the horns. Presumably the cars would be parked at the time.
Such a system is needed, the researchers argue, because cellphone broadcast systems, radios and televisions have limited ability to warn people of Mother Nature's wrath. The big problem, they say, is those methods only work when the phones, radios and TVs are on, and they only alert a few people at a time. The Institute estimates an alarm system that includes 14 percent of registered automobiles is "sufficient to provide extensive alarming."
"All hitherto suggested solutions such as mobile phones or smoke detectors only inform the respective user," researcher Guido Huppertz said in a statement. "The entire population can only be informed if 100 percent are equipped with these devices. . . The new system is meant to complement rather than replace the other options."
The Institute says the technology needed for such a system is readily available and could be widely adopted within two to four years. But would people learn to ignore a honking horn like they ignore a blaring car alarm?
*Photo: Flickr / prgibb. Graphic: Institute for Technological Trend Analysis. See a larger version of it here (.jpg).
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