We have them in Switzerland too. They are shaped like an arrow, so when there's more than one street nearby, you know which way you're supposed to walk (the arrow literally points your finger in the right direction).

What can be extremely frustrating is when some dumbass has the ingenious idea of sticking his disgusting, chewed-up chewing gum right over one of those those buzzers. So when I reach out to feel whether I can cross the street, my fingers sometimes meet a month-old chewing gum. I've come to hate this so much that I now believe in a total ban on chewing gums, Singapore-style.

Yup. I found out about this from a Tom Scott video. WHen I visited London 2 months ago I checked and the cogs were under very nearly every single button.

Unfortunately the confusing layout of the streets made them less helpful than they could've been. I really really wish lawmakers here in the States could install these. The spinning cog plus the less-confusing grid layouts would be incredible.