it may not have a practical application just yet, but i think in the next 20 years or so we'll see a transition to a next-generation road system... roads that know what traffic is coming, where problems are, when accidents happen. These could be very helpful in that sort of system... About a month ago I was driving down the interstate, when I encountered suddenly a semi, broken down in the middle lane. I almost hit it, i mean i was going 75 (flow of traffic), it was chaos. If these kind of cones could automatically deploy around breakdowns/accidents/etc, i think it certainly has lifesaving applications. Maybe they could have cameras in the tops, so they could provide visuals of accident scenes, to more accurately manage EMS needs.
They're rebuilding the interstate system through my city right now, and they're installing cameras down the main corridors, aimed at providing realtime traffic information to people, to eventually have car-tracking (counting) software installed. It's a very interesting idea, although it has implications... they claim it's impossible to read license plates because of deliberately degraded visual signal, but can we trust that? I don't want computers tracking me by license plate whenever i go to target, or my friend's house.
paul
