Pedestrians in one Australian city are perplexed after discovering an additional button at a crossing.
Upon crossing Flemington Road in Melbourne’s central business district on Tuesday, a perplexed pedestrian shared a snapshot of the enigmatic button.
In a Reddit post, the pedestrian questioned fellow users about the button-like feature to the right of the larger central button: “What is this button on the right?”
The Melbourne pedestrian noticed the additional ‘button’ while crossing Flemington Road and posted a photo to Reddit with the caption ‘What is this button on the right?’ (shown)
Reddit users joked that it was a ‘ejector seat’ button that, when pressed, would ‘raise the nation’s cash rate’
However, according to other users, the ‘button’ is actually a touchless infrared sensor that triggers the red light when a pedestrian waves their hand in front of it.
One user stated, “It is a touch-free sensor, and they have them all over the Royal Melbourne Hospital.”
Another user remarked, “It’s a proximity sensor.” Simply wave your hand in front of it to activate the crossing.’
In an effort to prevent surface-to-surface disease transmission, the Department of Transport of Victoria will implement touchless pedestrian crossing sensors in June 2020.
The department stated in a press statement, “The sensor resembles a standard push button, but instead of touching it, pedestrians wave their palm across the front of the touchless gadget to activate the pedestrian crossing.”
“An LED ring turns from red to green to reassure pedestrians that their request has been carried out.
The touchless sensor retains all the capabilities of a conventional push button, including audio tactile functions for the hearing and visually challenged.
To prevent surface-to-surface disease transmission, Victoria’s Department of Transport has been testing touchless technology in Melbourne’s central business district (pictured, pedestrians seen outside Flinders Street Station)
Con Liosatos, a resident of Melbourne and the managing director of Traffic Technologies Ltd, invented the technology, which costs approximately $320 – roughly $100 more than the conventional black and blue crossing buttons known as PB.5.
Mr. Liosatos told ABC News, “We believed it would be a good idea due to the growth of COVID.”
It demonstrates that you don’t need to kick objects; you can simply wipe your palm across them, and we’re off!
The company of Mr. Liosatos, which has manufactured crossing buttons for the past four decades, reported that councils and state governments across Australia, as well as stakeholders in New Zealand, Singapore, and Ireland, have expressed interest in the touchless technology.
Thousands of touchless crossing buttons will be rolled out statewide if the trial is successful.