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Transportation Wireless Networking Technology

Panasonic Makes Vacuum Gadget To Rescue Wireless Earbuds From Train Tracks (theverge.com) 60

Posted by BeauHD from the what-will-they-think-of-next dept.
Panasonic has collaborated with JR East on a vacuum cleaner-style device to solve a new problem that has sprung up on recent years: a rise in people dropping wireless earbuds onto train tracks. "The device is being tested at Ikebukuro station, a major hub in northern Tokyo, and early results suggest it works much faster than the traditional grabber," reports The Verge. From the report: JR East, the part of Japan's formerly private railway group that covers the Tokyo and Tohoku regions of the country, says that there were 950 incidents of dropped earbuds across 78 Tokyo train stations in the July-September quarter, Jiji Press reports. The figure apparently accounts for a quarter of all dropped items. According to JR East, station staff normally use a grabber-style "magic hand" tool to pick up larger items that fall onto tracks, like hats or smartphones. But the gravel between the rails makes smaller objects -- like, say, a left AirPod Pro -- more difficult to retrieve, meaning staff sometimes have to wait until after the last train.
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Panasonic Makes Vacuum Gadget To Rescue Wireless Earbuds From Train Tracks More

Panasonic Makes Vacuum Gadget To Rescue Wireless Earbuds From Train Tracks

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  • If only there was a way (Score:5, Insightful)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday November 07, 2020 @06:15AM (#60694652)

    To prevent earbuds from falling to the ground when they slip out. Maybe some kind of thin, lightweight string which wouldn't be noticeable by the wearer.

    I'm just spitballing here. Someone help me out.

    • Why would you want to stitch earphones to your ears with a string?!?!!1!

    • To prevent earbuds from falling to the ground when they slip out. Maybe some kind of thin, lightweight string which wouldn't be noticeable by the wearer.

      I'm just spitballing here. Someone help me out.

      Sorry, but I seemed to have lost my mind. For some reason I can't even find an interface to plug these into anymore. I swear it was hear a generation ago...

      • Sorry, but I seemed to have lost my mind. For some reason I can't even find an interface to plug these into anymore. I swear it was hear a generation ago...

        I have the opposite problem, they seem to interface with my iPhone at random times with me not doing anything intentional for it to happen.

        I'll be listening to an audio stream from my phone only to have it appear to stop at random. I investigate the problem to find the stream is still active, so it's not a lost WiFi connection or the internet going down. I'll check the volume and such, that's not it. Then I'll see that the phone has connected to my set of Bluetooth headphones or my Bluetooth receiver on

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          Sorry, but I seemed to have lost my mind. For some reason I can't even find an interface to plug these into anymore. I swear it was hear a generation ago...

          I have the opposite problem, they seem to interface with my iPhone at random times with me not doing anything intentional for it to happen.

          I'll be listening to an audio stream from my phone only to have it appear to stop at random. I investigate the problem to find the stream is still active, so it's not a lost WiFi connection or the internet going down. I'll check the volume and such, that's not it. Then I'll see that the phone has connected to my set of Bluetooth headphones or my Bluetooth receiver on my hi-fi stereo. This would be after I explicitly set the iPhone to output the audio from the internal speaker.

          This. On my list of serious flaws in iOS, the Bluetooth automatic connection behavior is #1 at the very top. I have my iPhone set up to connect to my car and to the land-line wireless phone at my house. Say that I answer the phone normally, then put it into speakerphone mode. Everything works just fine at first. Then I walk out of Bluetooth range of the home phone, and then walk back in, and suddenly the iPhone says, "Ooh. You just turned on a Bluetooth device. I should switch to that." And then the

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by cusco ( 717999 )

            That doesn't sound like a Bluetooth problem, since I never have any of those issues with my Android phone. I'd change your statement to "Apple sucks."

      • I still have one left, it's on the upper right of my phone...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I own such earbuds but don't use them much. They get greasy from ear wax. Someone should design a self-cleaning case for them.

    • Instead of a string, how about a wire?

    • Re:If only there was a way (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bluescrn ( 2120492 ) on Saturday November 07, 2020 @07:41AM (#60694778)
      Make that string into a wire, and you could even have batteryless earphones!
      • You guys are really letting your fantasy run wild. Madness, or Sci-Fi? Slashdot mods, please decide!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Falos ( 2905315 )

        You read too many comics, fuck outta here with that pulp sci-fi jetsons crap. Glasses can't X-ray through clothes and earphones can't work without you dutifully charging them all the time.

    • Re:If only there was a way (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Saturday November 07, 2020 @07:52AM (#60694798)

      BTW. Another thing that I think is missing is the cell phone strap.

      Dedicated cameras come with wrist straps so that you could wear the strap around your wrist and reduce the risk of dropping it.
      But now most people are using their cell phones as their primary camera, and people rely on them for many more things than just taking pictures. So why don't cell phones have straps to reduce the risk of losing/damaging them?

      Early in this century, cell phones did use to have loops for straps -- before cell phones had cameras. And that is backwards IMHO.
      Some cases have them though.

      • A cell phone with a strap is called a wrist watch these days. Pretty soon it will be finger ring and then a nose ring or some such.

        • A cell phone with a strap is called a wrist watch these days.

          That's evidence to me that we are living in the future.

          A wireless communications device that is small enough to be strapped to the wrist was always something we'd have in the future. Something promised to us for a century, if not far longer. We have wireless communications devices on our wrists now, therefore the future must have arrived.

      • Some cases have a strap, and you need a case anyway...

      • I have a flip case for my Note9 and I kind of use it like that. Flip the front cover over to the back, and I can hold it between my index and ring finger, while the index finger is also supporting the back of the phone. Not exactly a strap but a good way to hold a large phone in one hand.

      • Because people suck at gauging risk. They worry about incredibly rare events like their child being kidnapped by a stranger (only about 100 cases per year [pollyklaas.org] - about the same odds as your child being struck by lightning [nationalgeographic.com]) and school shootings (about 11.4 students killed per year [cnn.com], which is substantially less than the 31.6 teens who die from pregnancy each year [cdc.gov] - that's right, teen pregnancy kills far more students than school shootings).

        Each year, you have about a 1-in-5 chance of cracking your phone's scree [prnewswire.com]
        • Your math is wrong... or more specifically your understanding of what you wrote. The 1 in 5 is WHEN you drop it, it breaks 1 out of 5 times. However, that doesn't say/ anything about the probability of how often one would drop it for a specific period of time

      • There are hundreds of cell phone straps already on the market, plus lanyards, ring grips, pop-up grips, etc, etc, etc.

        But it would be nice if cell phones had a hole near the edge, so a lanyard could be firmly attached.

        The designers of the USB-C connector missed a chance to design the female connector to accept a clip with a releasable sprung barb, like a plastic side-release buckle or a push-in-to-release plastic rivet clip - we could clip in a lanyard when not charging.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        BTW. Another thing that I think is missing is the cell phone strap.

        Dedicated cameras come with wrist straps so that you could wear the strap around your wrist and reduce the risk of dropping it.
        But now most people are using their cell phones as their primary camera, and people rely on them for many more things than just taking pictures. So why don't cell phones have straps to reduce the risk of losing/damaging them?

        Early in this century, cell phones did use to have loops for straps -- before cell phones had

    • And if you knot the ends together you can use them to hang yourself!

      Now all we need is a snappy name...

      How about Seppukupods?

    • "To prevent earbuds from falling to the ground when they slip out. Maybe some kind of thin, lightweight string which wouldn't be noticeable by the wearer."

      The Fashion Police would arrest you on the spot.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by robi5 ( 1261542 )

      And a tax on being a(n object) loser, as well as litterer of hazardous electronics materials

  • I like the specificity here: a regular, non-pro AirPod would've been an inferior example.

    But the gravel between the rails makes smaller objects -- like, say, a left AirPod Pro -- more difficult to retrieve

  • Real Men Run Onto The Tracks (Score:3)

    by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Saturday November 07, 2020 @09:45AM (#60694988)

    And fetch their own earbuds.

  • This is an old problem in Japan (Score:4, Informative)

    by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Saturday November 07, 2020 @10:12AM (#60695058)

    When people are piling on and off commuter trains, small objects get jostled away from people all the time as they crowd together and fall between the car and the platform. Station personnel carry long-handled "grandma grabbers" to retrieve such items.

    The only thing that changes over the years is the nature of the dropped item. Umbrellas, watches, cellphones... So now it's earbuds.

    • Station personnel carry long-handled "grandma grabbers" to retrieve such items.

      It wouldn't have to be a large device; the elderly in Japan weigh a lot less than ours...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Falos ( 2905315 )

      >>When people are piling on and off commuter trains, small objects get jostled away

      Thank you. Kept thinking "thanks for parading your damn solution, but whence the problem's source".

  • My dear sweet Jesus. I find it uplifting, nay, exhilarating to live in a world where there are engineering accomplishments like this that make /. headlines. This is the essence of what /. should be. More please!
  • my biggest fear is losing one in the toilet.
  • For Generation x,y, and zero this must be a proud accomplishment as there is no greater lose then that of their toys.

  • July-September quarter = 92 days.
    950 incidents divided by 92 days divided by 78 stations = LESS THAN ONCE PER WEEK at each station.

    Building a specialized tool for this is stupid.

    -

  • ...would take care of this problem, but no one would get the chance to write fawning articles about a rechargeable-battery-powered single-purpose vacuum device that costs hundreds of times as much.

  • Being a user of this product myself, I am also inconvenienced by the either one falling off from my ear. I am not sure how this would impact the sale of wireless Earbuds in the future. https://pamsbizstartuppixie.wo... [wordpress.com]

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