Nuked Panasonic is working with one of Japan’s biggest railway companies to solve a new problem. People are dropping wireless earbuds onto train tracks.
There were 950 incidents of dropped earbuds across 78 Tokyo train stations in July-September quarter. Figure accounts for a quarter of all dropped items.
Station staff normally use a grabber-style’magic hand’ tool to pick up larger items that fall onto tracks, like hats or smartphones. But the gravel between the rails makes smaller objects more difficult to retrieve, meaning staff sometimes have to wait until after the last train.
Panasonic has been tapped to collaborate with Jr east on a vacuum cleaner-style device. The device is said to be much better suited to picking up stray earbuds.
