The Future Of Cycling: Smart, Hover & Light Up Bikes

At MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, the thoughts of the technologically minded aregeared towards the field of hybrid transport. They have recently designed the Copenhagen Wheel.  It is a wireless device that turns any ordinary bicycle into an electronic hybrid.

The wheel is designed to capture energy when the rider is going over some easy terrain, such as downhill, and then stores it in a battery pack for later use. Then, when needed, the saved energy is used to give the rider an electronic push when traversing difficult terrain.  The device has a sensor that learns the rider’s particular style and it can also anticipate certain aspects of the terrain ahead, including road conditions and even carbon monoxide levels!  The wheel can be controlled via a smartphone app; they can lock it, track usage statistics and select the level of motor assistance. The startup, Superpedestrian, brought the wheel to market last month and they have now started taking pre-orders for only $799.

Aerofex Hover Bike

Flying cars and hover boards in Back To The Future Part 2 made us think next year that we would all be flying around our daily routines.  Unfortunately, that is not the case (shame, because I really wanted a hover board!) But we need not fret too much as a California-based engineering company Aerofex has created a flying “hover bike” that looks like it has been taken from the new Star Wars movie set. This “Jedi bike” hovers due to its ducted fans and its operating height is low-altitude but can soar up to a maximum 15 feet (4.6 meters).  The current version is a proof-of-concept model used for development, but Aerofex says it is currently working on a production version.

Blaze

The number of cyclsists on the road in the last few years has dramatically increased, which is great for loads of reasons. But because of this, the amount of cyclist casualties has risen considerably also.  But all is not lost in the battle of Car V Bike as to combat the issue, a physics student from Brighton University, in England, has invented Blaze.  The device is a front-mounted lamp that projects a green laser image in front of a bicycle at a distance of five meters, to allow other road users see that there is a cyclist coming. The aim of this project is to help prevent vehicles from turning across a cyclist’s path.

[Image via flightlog.aerofex]

SOURCE: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/15/tech/innovation/hover-bikes-and-laser-lights/index.html?eref=mobiles_republic