Deterrence System for Texting-While-Walking Focused on User Situation

In recent years, users of smartphones are increasing explosively, and accidents and troubles due to texting-while-walking (TWW) are rapidly increasing along with this. Previous research on the TWW deterrence system was to display a warning on the screen, notify by voice or vibration, or make the screen dark and invisible when detecting TWW from the acceleration sensor. Although it is possible to detect TWW, but if the user feels the application troublesome, the application may be erased. This is because the TWW is forcibly suppressed even if user judges that the TWW is not dangerous at present or the short and important operation is required. In this research, we develop a suppression system focusing on user’s situation, especially walking speed. During the TWW, the user is notified that the walking speed is low, and the user is urged to increase the walking speed within a safe range. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this system, we prepared a conventional TWW deterrence system and our proposed system, and asked 17 peoples to do TWW. In the questionnaire after the experiment, 11 people answered that they would like to continue using the system that focused on walking speed.