Panasonic is working with one of Japan's largest railway companies to solve a new problem that has arisen in recent years: the increase in wireless headphones falling onto railway tracks.
JR East, the division of Japan's former private railway group that covers the Tokyo and Tohoku regions of the country, says there were 950 incidents of headphones falling at 78 Tokyo train stations in the July-September quarter, as reported by Jiji Press. The number apparently accounts for a quarter of all dropped items
According to JR East , station staff usually use a “magic hand” grabber-like tool to collect larger dropped items , such as hats or smartphones . But the gravel between the tracks makes smaller items — like AirPods Pro headphones, for example — harder to retrieve, meaning staff sometimes have to wait until the last train to pick them up.
To address the issue, Panasonic has agreed to collaborate with JR East on a vacuum cleaner-like device that is said to be much better suited to picking up small items like headphones. You can see the device in the image above.
The device is being tested at Ikebukuro Station, a major hub in northern Tokyo, and early results show that it works much faster than the traditional grabber tool.
Source of information: theverge.com
