METHOD FOR IMPROVING SAFE COOPERATION IN A DANGEROUS ENVIRONMENT
A vulnerable individual wears a simulated face in a dangerous environment. Heavy machine operators see the simulated face and behave more cooperatively because they feel like they are being watched. The vulnerable individual is safer because they wear a simulated face.
This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/921,710 filed Dec. 30, 2013 by the present inventors.
BACKGROUND1. Field of the Invention
This relates to people in dangerous environments, especially environments where people are operating heavy machinery such as cars, construction equipment, etc. According to the 2011 Traffic Safety Facts Annual Report published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 677 people riding bicycles died in traffic accidents and 48,000 were injured. 4432 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents and 69,000 were injured. Road workers are at risk for similar accidents. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
During the 2003 to 2010 period, 962 workers were killed while working at a road construction site. Eighty-seven percent of these deaths were to workers who were working on site at the time of the incident. The remaining 13 percent were to workers passing thorough the construction site. Workers on site were primarily killed when struck by a vehicle or mobile equipment, followed by overturns, fall from vehicle or mobile equipment, and collisions (where victim was inside vehicle or operating equipment). Workers passing through a construction site were primarily killed in collision events involving either a vehicle or mobile equipment going in the same direction, or a vehicle or mobile equipment striking a stopped vehicle or mobile equipment.
Source: An analysis if fatal occupational injuries at road construction sites, 2003-2010 Cyclists, pedestrians, road workers, and anyone working in a hazardous environment are herein after referred to as vulnerable individuals. Better safety equipment and methods are needed to reduce fatalities and injuries to vulnerable individuals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Some safety equipment exists to help increase safe cooperation between heavy equipment operators and vulnerable individuals. Bright yellow safety vests and jackets with large reflective bands are frequently worn by highway workers. The brightly colored vests help drivers see the workers sooner than if the workers were not wearing vests. Similarly, many cyclists wear brightly colored wind breakers to increase their visibility to drivers. However given the aforementioned traffic death and injury statistics, these devices have not proven 100% effective, or lack convenience such that not every vulnerable individual chooses to wear one. Pedestrians are rarely seen wearing any safety equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,900, titled Illuminated Bicycle Helmet, describes a new type of safety device for cyclists. It comprises a bicycle helmet with a forward-facing animal character face, with lights to signal which direction the cyclist intends to turn. However, this design suffers substantial shortcomings. In the bright light of day, the lights are difficult to see. The device requires batteries, and periodically replacing the batteries is a burden. The animal character face faces forward, so the face has no effect on anyone viewing it from behind, for example, a motorist who is overtaking the cyclist. Additionally, the device requires manual operation; therefore even if a cyclist wears the device, they may simply forget to operate it and thereby lose the advantage of signaling to other road users.
Some websites sell stickers in the shape of eyes to be put on the back of fire helmets, motorcycle helmets, and the like. However, the retailers do not claim that the stickers provide any safety benefit; they advertise them as a way to stylize a helmet. Someone looking at the back of a helmet with these stickers affixed is hereinafter referred to as an observer. An observer is unlikely to feel like they are being watched. The stickers suffer many disadvantages that work against the illusion of being watched. First, the stickers are cartoonish. An observer is unlikely to believe that a human or real animal is watching them because the appearance of the eyes is so cartoonish. The stickers are reflective. Because the whites and irises of human eyes and animal eyes are not reflective, an observer is unlikely to think that the eyes are real human or animal eyes when viewed at night. What's more, eyes are only part of a human or animal face, so when an observer sees the eyes, they see an incomplete face and are less likely to feel like they're being watched. Helmets rarely resemble the color of human flesh or animal fur, which works further against the illusion of being watched. Aside from not completing the illusion that the observer is being watched, these stickers suffer other disadvantages. They cannot be applied directly to the back of the head. Applying the stickers directly to the back of the head will yield tangled hair, and the stickers can only be used once in such a fashion. Also, the rears of most bicycle helmets do not have a smooth surface, so the stickers cannot be affixed to the rear of most bicycle helmets. Finally, no evidence has been published that the stickers affect safety.
TheoryA curious phenomenon has been observed by the inventors: if the operator of heavy machinery sees a vulnerable individual looking at them, the operator's behavior changes. After a driver makes eye contact with a cyclist, the driver will drive more cautiously near the cyclist. This observation is supported by recent psychological research.
Scientists have conducted experiments and published results showing how the illusion of being observed can make people behave more cooperatively. An article in Scientific American explains one study:
A group of scientists at Newcastle University, headed by Melissa Bateson and Daniel Nettle of the Center for Behavior and Evolution, conducted a field experiment demonstrating that merely hanging up posters of staring human eyes is enough to significantly change people's behavior. Over the course of 32 days, the scientists spent many hours recording customer's “littering behavior” in their university's main cafeteria, counting the number of people that cleaned up after themselves after they had finished their meals. In their study, the researchers determined the effect of the eyes on individual behavior by controlling for several conditions (e.g. posters with a corresponding verbal text, without any text, male versus female faces, posters of something unrelated like flowers, etc). The posters were hung at eye-level and every day the location of each poster was randomly determined. The researchers found that during periods when the posters of eyes, instead of flowers, overlooked the diners, twice as many people cleaned up after themselves.
So, although people behave more cooperatively when they're being watched, it is not possible for a vulnerable individual to watch every potentially dangerous machine operator. For example, it is not possible for a cyclist or road worker to show her face to every passing driver. Sometimes there are simply too many passing vehicles; other times the vulnerable individual must concentrate on other hazards, such as debris in the roadway, or her road construction work. Most commonly for cyclists, a car is overtaking the cyclist from behind, and turning to look at the car would take concentration away from hazards in front of the cyclist.
SUMMARYA vulnerable individual increases the safe cooperation of nearby heavy machine operators by wearing a simulated face on their head. The simulated face is manufactured from plastic, paper, rubber, or other suitable materials. The simulated face is fastened to the head or helmet using well-known fasteners, such as elastic, tape, or other suitable fasteners.
ADVANTAGESThe present invention has many advantages over earlier safety devices. It has no electrical parts or batteries, so the user is freed from installing and replacing batteries. Other inventions require a cyclist to push buttons or otherwise operate the device. The present invention requires no such operation. It works in bright sunlight, when many safety devices that employ lights or reflective materials are less effective. It can be manufactured from extremely thin and light-weight plastics minimizing the weight added to the bicycle rider. It can be manufactured with reflective paint or made with reflective material to increase night-time visibility. It can be manufactured very cheaply, especially when embodied as a paper mask with an elastic band.
Figures
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown in the figures. The face may be painted any color, skin tone or otherwise. The mask may be fastened to hat, hard hat, or other head gear. The simulated face may be fastened to an article of clothing or a backpack. The face may be complete or partial. The face may resemble a human being or animal, or even a fictional character. For example, it may have 3 eyes. The mask need not face directly backwards. It may face sideways, or even have multiple faces facing different directions to maximize face recognition by people viewing from side angles. The eyes of the mask may be mounted on springs or another flexible mechanism so that they move within the mask, in order to enhance the illusion that someone or something is watching. Another embodiment of the present invention comprises a tablet computer worn on the back of the head. The tablet computer plays a video of a person's face. The small movements in the face and eyes enhance the illusion that others are being watched.
ConclusionsBy wearing a mask on the back of her head, a vulnerable individual takes advantage of the natural phenomenon of heavy machine operators to better cooperate upon seeing a face. Many traffic accidents happen when an automobile passes and overtakes a cyclist. In such a situation, the driver never sees the face of the cyclist. With a mask attached to the back of a bicycle helmet, the driver will see a face and react by cooperating, which in this context means driving more safely near the cyclist.
It may not be obvious that the present invention improves cooperative behavior. To demonstrate its effectiveness, the inventors conducted a field trial. A cyclist rode the same at the same time of day for many days, alternating between wearing an ordinary helmet, and wearing a helmet with a simulated face fastened to the back. An ultrasonic range finder measured the distance between the cyclist and passing cars.
Here is the data collected when an ordinary bicycle helmet was worn:
Here is the data collected when a bicycle helmet with a simulated face was worn:
These data show that drivers provided a greater safety margin when passing a cyclist employing the present invention. The mean and median distances that a car passed the cyclist were greater when the cyclist employed the present invention.
Claims
1. A method for improving safe cooperation in a dangerous environment comprising a person wearing a simulated face.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said simulated face is visible from the back of said person.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said simulated face is visible from the side of said person.
4. A device for improving safe cooperation in a dangerous environment comprising a simulated face worn by a person.
5. The device of claim 4 wherein said simulated face comprises simulated eyes.
6. The device of claim 4 wherein said simulated face comprises simulated eyes and a nose.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 14, 2014
Publication Date: Jun 16, 2016
Inventors: Jeffrey Glen Rennie (Mountain View, CA), Robert Edward Rennie (Tustin, CA)
Application Number: 14/569,756
