Panasonic is working with one of Japan’s largest railway companies to solve a new problem that has arisen in recent years: an increase in people dropping wireless earbuds on railway tracks.
JR East, part of Japan’s previous private railway group covering the country’s Tokyo and Tohoku regions, says there have been as many as 50 Ibadd drops dropped at 787 Tokyo train stations in the July-September quarter, according to a GG Press report. This figure is obviously a quarter of all dropped items.
According to JR East, station staff typically use a Greber-style “Magic Hand” tool to pick up large items lying on the track, such as hats or smartphones. But the gravel between the rails makes small things – like, say, the left AirPod Pro – harder to get to, meaning staff sometimes have to wait until the last train.
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G.G. GG Press by East
To address this issue, Panasonic hired J.R. The former has been tapped to collaborate on a vacuum cleaner-style device, which is said to be more appropriate in choosing stray earbuds. You can see it in the picture above.
The device is being tested at Ikebukuro Station, a major center in northern Tokyo, and preliminary results indicate that it works much faster than a conventional catcher.
