At the end of a long and wearying shopping trip, I lose a large amount of my sense of coordination, personal space, and all those other crazy there-are-other- people-in-the-world skills.

When navigating my way through yet another full shop trying to keep an eye on two equally bored kids and appease my wife who has long since sensed my lack of commitment to the matter at hand, I tend to back up without checking who, or what is behind me. Frequently. This can extend the shopping trip even more.

The basic, slightly arrogant version of my proposed solution is a gyroscope equipped alarm, that senses when you are moving backwards and emits noises similar to those UPS vans: "This - person - is - reversing. This - person - is - reversing."

The slightly more sensitive version, which is more useful in a china shop, too, would have a set of those reverse sensors they have on modern car bumpers. Beeps close to your ear increase in frequency the closer you get to an object behind you.

I find my responsiveness to stimuli in these situation tends to deteriorate substantially, so maybe a combination of the two solutions might be best.
-- TheLightsAreOnBut, Mar 28 2007

Halfbakery: Backup Shoe Beeper Backup_20Shoe_20Beeper
As mentioned by Texticle. [jutta, Mar 31 2007]

The backup alarm for fat people emits an ear-splitting BEEP - BEEP - BEEP, warning others to get out of the way or suffer the consequences. May also include a panel painted with yellow and black diagonal stripes and a flashing red light.
-- nuclear hobo, Mar 28 2007


I don't really want people to beep when they back up. As long as there's no warning, I'm perfectly within my rights to crash into them "by accident".
-- phundug, Mar 29 2007


This idea is already somewhere on the HB, although I believe that special shoes were utilised in that example. I can't find a link though.
-- Texticle, Mar 30 2007


vaguely related comment: restaurant staff are encouraged to say "behind" (or something similar) when walking behind a chef. This reduces the chances of chef turning around or stepping back and causing injury (with knife, hot pan etc).
-- xaviergisz, Mar 30 2007



random, halfbakery