The Solar Traffic Light
We are starting to see a number of more greener and energy efficient gadgets and technology being released all the time, like the new electric cars from various manufacturers, but it is going to be some time before we see more energy efficient gadgets in every day life.
Designers Cheng-Tsung Feng, Yao-Chieh Lin & Bo-Jin Wang have come up with a really cool design for a solar powered traffic light.
If you think how many traffic lights there are in the world, this certainly seems like a good idea, although it is just a design concept at the moment.
The Solar Traffic Light uses Discolor LED technology, which means all three separate colors, red, amber and green of the traffic lights are houses in a single unit, which would make it a lot cheaper to produce as well.
The lights are powered by solar panels, which are on top of the traffic light, which also act as a hood to protect the light from the weather etc.
I think it is a great design, and I am sure we will see something like this on our streets in the future.
Yanko Design via Dvice
October 21st, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Bad idea. The lights are separate so people with color blindness can distinguish them.
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:56 pm
The designers get around the colour blindness aspect by using shapes _and_ colours.
Green = Rounded circle (O)
Yellow = Triangle (A)
Red = Cross (X)
The unit will have to be pretty big though for anyone, colour blind or not, to distinguish the shape from a distance great enough to stop in time (if required).
October 25th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Color blindness is a very valid issue, some towns have their lights laying horizontal which is confusing for the color blind when they first encounter them.
The shapes are a good idea but why not stick with the norm and use arrows indicating which direction(s) you can go from the lane that you are in? And with this new technology why not also implement animation… use a blink cycle on the stale green light like the ‘walk/don’t walk’ signs have and eliminate the yellow light all together?