Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Street corner pedestrian proximity detectors.

Avoid walking into strangers at speed when walking round corners in a hurry.
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Pelican Crossings emit noises to assists negotiating busy roads. Why not employ this success story for busy street corners. Attach proximity sensors onto 'Black Spot' street corners that activate when you approach, and as you walk near emit a note, that descends as you draw near the apex of the corner. As you pass the apex, the note would begin to raise again until you are out of range (say 10 feet). Like a very big Theremin. Thus if you are in a hurry, you can confidently negotiate street corners at speed without fear of walking slap bang into somebody doing the self same thing coming the other way.

Plus, if you are feeling playful, maybe you could organise friends at cross roads to leap in and out of range at unison to recreate popular Motown hits. See what the RIAA make of it.

Sadly, the sensors would inevitably have to be automatically deactivated if there were many pedestrians wandering by, at which time they wouldnt be required anyway.

jh84169, Sep 03 2003

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       Even more useful in the office.
RayfordSteele, Sep 03 2003
  

       This idea simply wouldn't serve its original purpose, I'm afraid; if you construct a gigantic street theremin, you'll have crowds queueing to play with it, and large amounts of traffic to negotiate.   

       All the more reason to build one; I'd def. be queueing myself. A fantastic idea. Have a vibrating croissant.
Elvisatehere, Sep 04 2003
  

       I'm not voting against this , but the first thing that popped into my head was a visual of some punk with a baseball bat listening to the chirp and thinking - one more second, just one more second.   

       A good point by 2 fries, but I was tthinking, sorry, half thinking, this could have the added benefit of reducing crime: no more nasty punks leaping out in surprise at you, because you would _hear_ he was there as you approached, by his steady low pitched pedestrian proximity detector induced tone.
jh84169, Sep 04 2003
  

       Could it not be modified so it would make a sound only if there were 2 or more people approaching the corner from different directions. My point being that one person approaching the corner would make a sound when really no warning would actually be needed.   

       Admittedly, more sound = more fun
RFC, Sep 04 2003
  
      
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