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A Bike Taillight that Goes Beyond Mere Taillighting (Video)
Meet David. Tim Lord ran into him at the 2014 Maker Faire Bay Area. He didn't have a display, and he wasn't obviously trying to sell anything or promote a Kickstarter campaign. He was just walking around with a panel full of LEDs that he wears as a backpack while riding his bike, which beats the heck out of regular bike taillights, even the blinky flashy ones a lot of us have these days. So good on you, David. This is your three minutes of Slashdot fame -- and please note, people, that you can now fast-forward through any preroll ads longer than 30 seconds, so you won't get bombed with multi-minute ads to watch a three minute Slashdot video. (Alternate video link)
As a fan of lights myself, that's pretty darn awesome - great job David.
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Bummer the video didn't have any product demonstrations in low light while on a bike
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
He was "walking around" while "riding his bike." What? How the F?
Sorry, Dice. Suck on a chode.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Got two Monkey Lights on my rear wheel that light up pretty good as I commute on Tokyo's streets, no need for any backpack or such.
Seems a bit big and bulky for a bicycle rider, where every ounce counts.
They are attracted to flashing lights and will home in on this like a June bug to a porch light. Having said that, it looked very well done.
check out what these croatian guys are doing with integrated bicycle technology: their Visiobike is perhaps alittle ahead of its time, but i'd get one. see their indiegogo campaign at igg.me/at/visiobike looks like they need our support.
I'm pretty sure the legality of this in use on the road using animations or any colour other than red is questionable at best.
Remember kids: What's right isn't as important as what's profitable.
You could get an old laptop display, or even a tablet, be it Android or iProduct and beat this thing in every way. But you can't see a tablet well in the sunlight? I think it's obvious from this video you can't see that thing in the daylight either.
I'm not knocking the guys ability or talents, but he invented the light display AFTER the Jumbotron came out.
I'm a cyclist, I think things like Monkey lights are incredibly awesome, I think the new inner rim lights are great, but this isn't on point.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
And this is supposed to be impressive how?
What problem is this solving?
which beats the heck out of regular bike taillights
It "beats the heck" out of them? Well, thanks for that devastatingly insightful exposé of the limitations of existing bike lights.
"Instead of having a blinking red light, which is very boring..."
Heaven forfend that my blinking red light should bore a driver.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
"and please note, people, that you can now fast-forward through any preroll ads longer than 30 seconds"
Or, and this may just be a popular opinion with some users, you can shove that video up your ass and I won't watch it at all because fuck you, you money-grubbing assholes. Oh and thanks for the bottom screen ad blocking everything. That's a nice improvement to slashdot too.
Flashing lights undoubtedly draw the attention of people behind them on the road.
The problem is they do their job too well and become mesmerizing, drawing attention away from actually driving. People become so focused on the lights they don't realise that they're driving dangerously close to the bike, they start to slowly edge onto the wrong side of the road or they simply miss hazards up ahead.
Lots of drivers dislike even simple blinking red lights because of this. This 'jumbotron' will actually make things far more dangerous for everyone involved and is even of questionable legality.
Aye, verily, the olde-fashioned stylings of words offendeth me, so I cutteth them out.
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
Build it into the flexible backpack, instead of a hard flat panel. Oh wait, now I have to have that particular backpack all the time, instead of something attached to he bike.
I get it...more lights are not a bad thing. But I'm not going to ride around being a billboard. I just want people to see me and not hit me.
I'm pretty sure the legality of this in use on the road using animations or any colour other than red is questionable at best.
As for flashing red google " moth effect". No flashing red blinkies in my family.
No, not the video. And not this particular video but others I've watched.
I mean the vocaloid thing. Stop with it, ok? Maybe youngums like it and are used to it, but for us geezers is like people are talking with a sock inside their mouths -- a used sock.
Specially for non-native speakers, nuances in pronunciation are important; it seems native speakers are much more adept at understanding by hearing than the rest of us.
But, well, you're paying... then do what you want. What is the impact of having higher quality sound by the way?
The technology here is cool, but the last thing I want to do on my bike is wear a backpack. Even on short rides, it seals the heat in and guarantees a sweaty back.
These are a bit flashy for me, but they're wheel mounted and pretty cool looking:
http://www.monkeylectric.com/
az0
Why is he proposing a hard enclosure for this? It would be a lot more practical (not to mention more convenient and lighter) to sew these into the covering flap of a messenger bag or similar (like he had), using easily-obtainable RGB LEDs on flexible PCB strips (like he was using) that are already sealed and watertight. The only difficulty would be sealing the connecting points, but that wouldn't be too much of an issue, and if you're going whole hog and making from the SMT parts up (instead of repurposing already made components) you could make a square sheet of flexible PCB for the whole thing.
Also, aren't there laws against putting flashing/strobing/colour-changing signs and lights in front of people's faces while they drive? While better visibility is good, techno-disco-light-shows distracting all and sundry on the road is bad.
Too many sites to allow in NoScript; didn't watch ...
Second - if all you can do is argue incessantly, spamming the board with your wild invective it is more and more evidence of your mental instability. I'm sorry that my previous analysis was too accurate for your comfort; too correct for you to accept as anything but an attack.
Third - if I've committed libel (as you repeatedly say) you will need to seek redress in court. Your inability to do so against all that you have threatened (and there are several) would seem to confirm your inability to do so. I have even given you my contact information, yet no subpoena appears to be forthcoming.
You really need to seek out professional help. Even without a degree in psychology I can clearly see how you came to be so badly damaged. Get help soon, before something terrible happens young man. I am certainly your superior in both age and mental abilities. You're the one repeatedly advertising the state of your software. My opinion no longer matters, as you keep reposting it here in your own words.
Please call 800-543-3638.
If some more professional research and design was put into this it could be extremely useful for motorcyclists. When most people drive they're mostly just looking for other cars and a motorcyclist that looks extremely visible to a dashboard cam in the aftermath of an accident can easily go unnoticed by an inattentive driver. Something like a large red light bar at the top of the backpack that could triggered by the motorcycle's front and/or rear brake could give a night time rider a more similar profile to a car in poor light could them more noticeable and safer. Some work could be done to figure out what kind of profile any additional lights and patterns could be used to make them more noticeable too.
There is no memory shortage. yes I have heard of XFCE. Go away.
..as they say on Dragon's Den. Engineer this down to *cloth* and I might be interested. So I can roll it up and stuff it in my backpack. And make it not black when the batteries fail. And make it only slightly more expensive than one of those hi-viz cyclist vests. What? They give those away for free? Could you sell one of these things for $5/£5 and still make a profit?
For a fiver I could wrap my bike and myself in reflective material and not have to worry about batteries.
please check back later :(
Just checking in to remind everyone not to use this gadget in the great city of Boston, MA
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
It's a board with LEDs that flash. Amazing.
I feel it is all about improving the odds.
Electroluminescent (E.L.) wires outlining the bike provide a totally unambiguous, if impractical and expensive solution.
My mother was once saved in a car accident by NOT wearing her seatbelt. She was thrown from the car before it went over an embankment. This is NOTan argument against seatbelts.
I feel reflectors in the spokes are the best defense from the side, while blinking front and rear LEDS provide the rest. Solar chargers might even help by improving the odds against a dead battery.
Given it takes about two seconds on youtube to find dozens of videos of cop cars being hit while making roadside stops (where the associated flashing cop car lights and other fanfare clearly didn't stop the driver from hitting them) I'm not sure ANYTHING is really going to make a cyclist that much safer.
How is this better than the LED T-shirts already on the market?
I'm David, the guy in the video. Thanks, Tim, for posting! Since you couldn't really see what the patterns on the LED were, here's a video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...