In the name of safety, where does it stop.

So we have come up with a proposal for exactly what we are going to be doing for our final project. We have decided that we are going to make a vest/harness/bookbag attachment that one would wear that is fixed with a left and right blinker, as well as a brake light. The left and right blinkers will be made of either (hopefully) two LoL matrices of LED's (if that is not possible because it is too late, we are going to improvise. We were thinking that the left and right blinker will be activated with buttons. I was even thinking… if at all possible, maybe accelerometers? I'm not sure if that would really work though, buttons is probably the safest bet.

I am going to talk about conceptually what this project means to me because I think both of our ideas conceptually were a little different although we are totally on the same track. Here is my side:

To me, he device is intended to be worn as a user walks, runs, bikes, skateboards, pretty much all the time, and it is intended to, well, make them safer. I kind of want to show the device as if it was a serious product, actually intended to save people from injury. Coming up with ridiculous stats about the object

-reduces the number of human to human collisions by more than 80%
-saves people walking from injury by letting others around them know which way you are going
-proven effective safety device in several scientific studies*
-increases life expectancy by over 10 years
-if you don't wear this vest you are going to die!
*not actually scientists

My favorite thing about this piece is how it can be taken as a complete joke, or as a totally serious product depending on how you put the spin on it. I want to maybe even like make an advertisement or something for the product we could display next to it. If time permits of course.

I think this piece can really mock laws in society that are intended and publicized as if they protect us. Every offender of this law is charged with a crime that had absolutely no victim. Other crimes such as speeding or drunk driving actually do have a victim, society, the person that they accidentally killed when they lost control of their car because they were going too fast. By not wearing your seatbelt, the only person you have put in danger is yourself. I always wear my seatbelt, but I don't wear it because they told me to, I wear it because I don't want to die in a car accident. I think the whole reason they have the 'seatbelt law' is so they can profile people and pull them over with little to no reason, and if the person asks for a reason, all they have to say is they looked like they weren't wearing a seatbelt. I don't know. Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm right.

Back to the harness/vest: to me this device poses the question:

'In the name of safety, where does it stop?
'In the name of safety, when does it stop?
'In the name of safety, when will it stop?
'In the name of safety, when will they stop?
'In the name of safety, where will they stop?

I'm not really sure which way is the best way to word it.




This article is sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving