A bicycle is the in-thing today considering the large amounts of pollution caused by vehicles using fossil fuels. Since one needs to use muscle power to ride a bicycle, cycling has health benefits as well. Many cities now have special lanes reserved exclusively for cyclists, and touring with cycles is one of the favorite sports people of all ages enjoy all over the world.
Cycles have been around for quite some time, and people have invented many gadgets and attachments for improving the travails of the cyclist. Earlier, the gadgets were mostly mechanical, and then electronic, now there are apps on smartphones that help in planning the route, and keeping track of so many things a rider may need. Apart from convenience, safety is another important factor that a cyclist should consider.
People who like to cycle fast usually also want to know their speed. However, glancing at a speedometer on the handlebar of your bike is not a very safe idea if you are going at high speeds. Taking your eyes off the road, even for the brief moment it takes to read the speedometer, is asking for trouble; you might hit a pothole or are doored. Well, someone had a brainwave to project the speed on to the path ahead, so the rider knows how fast he is going, without inviting trouble.
That someone is Matt Richardson, from Brooklyn and he has used a Raspberry Pi (RBPi) for making his bike speed projector as a do-it-yourself project. He has mounted the tiny Single Board Computer on his bicycle, where it reads the speed of the bike and projects it dynamically on to the ground in front of the rider, while still illuminating the way. The headlight also helps to make the rider more visible to other road users. Richard is calling his project the Raspberry Pi Dynamic Headlight.
At present, Richard’s prototype only shows the speed, but almost anything can be shown that a rider would find useful. For example, it could be used to show a turn direction or a map from a GPS program, weather info, estimated time to reach the destination, total distance covered and even proximity warnings if another vehicle approaches to close at the rear.
Although with more information displayed, chances of distraction will also increase. However, with the minimalistic data projected, this headlight is surely a great benefit to cyclists. Richardson has housed the RBPi and other electronics on a triangular piece of wood hung from the center frame of his bicycle. A pico projector clamped on the handlebar handles the projection. A HDMI cable connects the pico projector with the RBPi. A battery pack, meant to power mobiles, powers the entire electronics via a USB cable. The speed sensor is mounted, as it should be, on the wheel.
Richardson is keen to add to the next phase of his project. He wants more animations and visualizations in his Raspberry Pi Dynamic headlight project. Such DIY inventions such as this only goes to show what all is possible with a cheap Single Board Computer, some programming and some ingenuity.
