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Texting On the Move Makes You Walk Weird, Study Finds (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University put a mobile eye tracker and motion analysis sensors on participants who walked and crossed a curb-like obstacle on the ground while writing or reading a text or talking on the phone. According to results, phone users spend up to 61 percent less time watching out for the obstacle, and bring their foot up "higher and slower" over the obstacle as they walked, adopting a "cautious and exaggerated stepping strategy" to minimise the risk of tripping. This tendency is observed most in users writing a text on their phones. "We found that using a phone means we look less frequently, and for less time, at the ground, but we adapt our visual search behaviour and our style of walking so we're able to negotiate static obstacles in a safe manner," said Dr Matthew Timmis, lead author and senior lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science. "This results in phone users adopting a slow and exaggerated stepping action."
Is that like a curb?
So what? Haven't we already observed this about people walking down the street while... looking at a map... reading some handout they were just handed... cramming in some last-minute studying for a test... reviewing the presentation they are about to give... or whatever? Is this really just news because we found out people do exactly the same thing while texting?
That's the name I have for them. I still wonder if they're slowly pecking out "Brains!" while they stagger along eyes down peering at their phone while they walk out in front of traffic...
--- I've completed diagnosis of your problem and can classify it as a YOYO...You're On Your Own
The Ministry of Silly Walks.
Is this really the kind of stuff research grants are spent on? Can I get a grant to study the correlation between picking one's nose and eating it?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Use what the camera sees as the screen background.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
You know what helps on tripping while texting? Using the formal parade walk used around light anti-air cannons. Also traveling on an elevator becomes so much more exciting when the six persons inside start jumping around to get to the buttons according to the parade order. In fact, it should be filmed and posted to depict the practical everyday uses of formal military training.
What a strange way of spelling "an asshole".
I'll be the one walking down the street slapping phones out of the zombie's hands, thanks.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Back when the iPod first came out, I almost hit a college kid who literally stepped off the curb with his back to me, never checking oncoming traffic before he stepped out into an unmarked portion of the street (no cross walk or cross street). Sure enough he had white earbuds in his ears, and he was completely oblivious as my tires squealed on the pavement and I stood on the horn, swerving around him (there was literally no distance to brake). It was my first experience with an iPod zombie. Apparently now we have the next generation, the texting Zombies... Yet another way to win yourself a Darwin award.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
Doesn't make you write weird, though. Slashdot editor does that.
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This is why we need thinner phones and phones with transparent screens+inners+cases. Of course, if phone OSes didn't restrict you to single windows like pre-Window 3.0 days or Windows 8 days, then you'd be able to have a picture-in-picture view through the camera and you'd be able to see around your phone now instead of waiting for transparency. But no, multitasking while multitasking is too complex to allow users to do that, unless we want to pop--up a notification for an ad. That's acceptable multi-multitasking.
If so, then don't text and walk. Drive instead.
Isn't that sorta how zombies walk?
PokemonGo makes people walk weird AND get killed. Do we really need a study on this? What defines as weird? What social-norm king gets the honor of discriminating for this? Please tell me this was an undergrad study. You come to me with that to get your doctorate, you better look elsewhere.
Go watch the video of the woman falling down the open cellar door in the sidewalk. And how many times have you, texting, did or nearly walked into people?
I don't text on my flip-phone, I talk to people....
Need some data on how much of these various issues with smartphone+person interactions are due to the touch screen interface. I have no doubts (though i haven't actually been arsed to look deeply into it) that if you were to correlate cell phone usage related accidents against various benchmarks of cellphone uptake, the trend would more closely follow the prevalence of touch screens than anything else. Probable reasons include: no useful tactile feedback (a little vibration when you trigger something is insufficient), difficult to hold (still don't understand why people want a slippery glass puck), and wibbly wobbly user interfaces that rearrange themselves at a moment's notice. T9 (and related) text entry systems are, in many ways, ideal for entering text when a full keyboard is not available; touchscreens will only ever be a (low manufacturing cost, aesthetic) compromise that sacrifices overall usability, at least for 'classical' computer usage.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
That's why I always text as I walk. I'm saving my inherent gait for the time I don't want to be recognized.
It's called mincing, faggots.