UK-based technology company Umbrellium has installed an interactive pedestrian crossing in South London that responds dynamically, in real-time, to its environment.

Umbrellium says the familiar zebra crossing design (originating in the 1940s) has not been updated for the ways that city inhabitants use their streets in the tweny-first century.

The company adds that most discussion about road technology focuses on vehicles, but with the Starling Crossing – STigmergic Adaptive Responsive LearnING Crossing – the company has created “a responsive road surface that puts people first”.

The Starling Crossing keeps the familiar white stripes of the zebra crossing, but, as the markings appear on a waterproof network of light-emitting diodes embedded into the road, it can change its layout, configuration, direction, size and colour.

Using a neural network framework, cameras track objects that are moving across the road surface, distinguishing between pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, calculating their precise locations, trajectories and velocities and anticipating where they may move to in the next moment.

The full-scale prototype crossing is designed to support the weight of vehicles, remain slip-free in pouring rain and to display markings bright enough to be seen during night and day.

At different times of day, and in different situations, the road can alter its configuration in real-time.

Early in the morning when there are few pedestrians, the Starling Crossing may only appear when someone approaches, guiding them to the crossing location that it has learned over time is the safest, leaving the road otherwise free for vehicular traffic.

Later in the day, when pubs close or a film ends and many people need to cross the road at the same time, the Starling Crossing automatically expands in width to accommodate increased pedestrian traffic.

If a person is distracted, looking down at their mobile, and veers too close to the road surface when a car is nearby, a warning pattern lights around them to fill their field of vision.

If a child runs into the road unexpectedly, a large buffer zone is created around them to make their trajectory clear to any nearby drivers or cyclists.

In a particularly dangerous situation, when a pedestrian is rushing across the street, but is in a cyclist’s or driver’s blindspot, the Starling Crossing adapts in real-time to draw their attention directly to the hidden pedestrian’s location and trajectory.

The Starling Crossing might also adapt to different specific environmental conditions, such as creating larger pedestrian buffer zones in wet weather.

Using the principles of stigmergy –  the pheromone traces that ants leave, attracting other ants to the best paths toward food sources – the Starling Crossing is also able to monitor and adapt to pedestrian behaviour over long term use so that, for example, if most people exiting a train station end up walking diagonally across the road towards a park entrance, the crossing is able to reconfigure as a diagonal or even trapezoidal crossing, with corresponding safety buffer zones.

This means Starling Crossing enables pedestrians to cross the way they want to cross, rather than telling them they can only cross in one place, or in a fixed way.