Change Traffic Lights with a Universal Remote

Ever been late for something and while driving there it seems like you hit every red light on the way? This video claims that you can change traffic lights from red to green by using a universal TV remote. Can this possibly be?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFJuDba3Y_4

This has been around for awhile. There is some legitimacy to it. Here's an article from Wired....

http://www.wired.com/science/discove.../2005/08/68507

From what I remember, they do exist, but they don't work the way most people think - they actually turn the lights to red, since it's easier for an ambulance to avoid traffic coming from the sides than dealing with traffic coming from behind them.

And they don't work everywhere - only certain parts of the country have setups that it will work on.

But why would the pulse codes be programmed into universal remotes, and under the obvious code 9-1-1?


Some other videos under that profile include the "Unlock you car with a tennis ball" trick and "Unlock your car with a cell phone".

I can't find a source So I'll try & go from memory there was a Toronto Sun Article awhile back that said that devices for use by ambulances & other emergency vehicles were beiong sold on ebay.

It seems streetracers were buying them.

Though I remeber they only worked in the city of London, Ontario, etobicoke & a few other places.

[jimmy101_again]

This doesn't sound very likely.

1. You would need to have the correct modulation. TV remotes don't simply blink the IR LED on and off. To send 1-0-1 is doesn't just turn the LED on, then off, then on again. I can't think of any reason, other than dumb luck, for the traffic lights to use the same modulation as a TV remote. Below are a few traces of the signal transmitted by a TV remote transmits when a single button is pushed.


The signal is also in the audio freqeunce range so you can listen to it.

2. The intensity of the IR light transmitted from a TV remote is pretty feeble. Adequate for use inside a house at a range of up to perhaps 20 feet. Much too feeble to be seen outside, particular in daylight, at a range of hundreds of feet.

3. Even if you were lucky and had the right modulation, and could boost the output of the IR LED by a factor of hundreds, you would still need to know what the actual signal is that the receiver is expecting. I think it is very unlikely that the receiver is simply looking for a bright IR source. I'm sure it is looking for a particular signal.

In central Virginia, the universal remote idea doesn't work in most areas. Most fire and rescue apparatus have a type of strobe light mounted on the forward facing light bar that activates a sensor on the stop lights, turning the lights red in all directions.

In certain areas, mainly narrow streets with limted room to get out of the way, the lights change to all green in the direction the apparatus is traveling to move the traffic efficiently through the area.