Bike headlight displays speed

My friend Matt Richardson made a system for his bike that projects a spotlight with data onto the street. It's currently set up to display speed, but it can also be used to project other kinds of information (like turn-by-turn directions). He's going to write about it for MAKE so you can build one, too.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

MORE: makers

More at Boing Boing

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Hackers prepare for first "national holiday" in their honor

jandrese

That is fantastic. The pi could probably even overlay a map on the road and do realtime directions. I’ve always thought that those little battery driven projectors were useless, I’m glad to be proven wrong.
- Gilbert Wham
  
  Needs moar dynamo-driven charger too.
  - jandrese
    
    Sure, if he wants to suck all of the fun out of his bike ride.
    - Gilbert Wham
      
      How?
      - Donald Petersen
        
        Yeah, these days they gotta be better than the one I had in the early 90s. That sucker was heavy, noisy, and sucked a lot of pedalpower considering how little wattage it put out.
      - Gilbert Wham
        
        Dunno, I had probably the same thing in the ’70s (and a MUCH heavier bike), but my kid-size legs did ok with it. But aye, it should be considerably lighter & more efficient.
    - http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi
      
      You obviously haven’t looked at dynamos lately. They’ve gotten a lot better over the years.
unicornrainbow

So it doesn’t work in the day time?
- mccrum
  
  It works, you just can’t see the light on the ground.
- jandrese
  
  Since it uses one of those little battery powered projectors, no. I’m a little surprised it works as well as it does on lit city streets. Those projectors are really crap.
Gilbert Wham

OOOO! Bike post!
*gets popcorn*
- oasisob1
  
  IKR! It’s not even a battle report, yet the war rages on.
tylerkaraszewski

They already have handlebar mounted GPS for bikes, and handlebar mounts for smartphones. I mean, I get that this guy wanted to build it himself, but this seems strictly less practical.
- mccrum
  
  Everyone, stop making things! It’s much more practical to just consume!
  
  Whew, close one there. Someone almost taught themselves something.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
    
    While this is a pretty cool project, the pico-projectors I’ve seen cost as much as a bike GPS all by themselves. There’s a whole lot of consuming going on there.
- http://profiles.google.com/westcarleton Ray Perkins
  
  His project is cool, and all, but I don’t see an advantage over a regular speedometer. Other than maybe not having to re-focus your eyes as much.
  - oasisob1
    
    How about the advantage of having made something and having become smarter about making along the way? Seems pretty practical to me.
Roose_Bolton

If he can make it so that it throws a hologram about 5-10 feet in front of the bike of someone frantically running away while looking over their shoulder, I’m in.
- jandrese
  
  The Pi is more than capable of playing videos, so that’s not too hard to do. Making it not look bad by keeping the video synced with the ground passing underneath would be pretty tricky, but the basic mode should work fine.
  - brainflakes
    
    I think the most difficult part will be projecting a hologram :)
thekinginyellow

seems like a distraction…like driving and texting.
- SamSam
  
  Or like a speedometer.
  
  Those things are illegal, right?
- oasisob1
  
  I was going to say it needs connection to cell and wireless keyboard for texting.
- thekinginyellow
  
  seriously though. after watching the video it looks like he’s having a hard time operating the bike because he’s watching the display. this would be cooler if it were on some sort of HUD on a helmet or glasses so you don’t have to take your eyes off of your environment.
Cowicide

This makes me want to have a rear camera and have this thing show me blinking red squares of cars approaching from behind. It could detect the headlights at night (and the shape of them during the day).

It could also figure out the speed in which the car is approaching and put that number beside it.I guess it’d look something like this… take my money.
pitkataistelu

Dude, you’re weaving like an inebriated clown!
- dragonfrog
  
  I know, right?
  
  Hand signals for turns? Sissy stuff. Hand signals for lane changes? Faugh. Shoulder checking before merging? Where’s that at?
  
  At least all the traffic, including the bike, were going nice and slow.
  - TheOven
    
    In NYC they don’t have traffic “laws” as such, just traffic “suggestions”.
    - Gilbert Wham
      
      I live in England, where we have a MUCH harder driving test, and I check my six constantly, cos people are still idiots.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Like Boston, where they have Whichever One-Way You Happen To Be Going streets?
  - http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi
    
    How did you know he wasn’t doing shoulder checks? Judging by the angle the 1st person shot was taken at the camera was mounted on a shoulder or to his top somehow. Also the weaving seemed mainly to do with getting out of the way of the car behind.
    - dragonfrog
      
      Anyone riding like that is not shoulder checking.
      
      Given how slowly the cars were moving, there was no need to get out of their way anyway – just move at the same speed as other traffic…
- Navin_Johnson
  
  I wouldn’t insult him like that, but I thought this was weird too. He seemed to be weaving back and forth into empty parking spaces and then back into the riding space between traffic and parked cars which is where he should just stay. If something blocks his way or it gets to tight then he needs to “take the lane”.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1477120309 Greg Scavezze

What a cool use of a raspberry pi! It seems like once something like Google Glass becomes more mainstream though, this will be obsolete as Glass works in daylight and is directly in your field of vision so you don’t have to look down at the street to see it.
- Cowicide
  
  Laser projectors work in daylight, so Google Glass wouldn’t make this obsolete if it uses that in the future.
  
  For example:
  http://www.techradar.com/news/home-cinema/projectors/panasonic-launches-worlds-thinnest-laser-projector-module-1101839
- TheOven
  
  Google glasses have obsoleted an invention before it’s even invented?
  
  I feel like I just put instant coffee in the microwave and went back in time a little.
  - Gilbert Wham
    
    You’ll feel less emasculated by them as well, so it’s all good!
- Donald Petersen
  
  One of these days, Google Glass will display the potholes and roadkill and drainage grates and other assorted road hazards in my path, so I never need glance down at the road again!
  
  Until then, I’d like to hook my Kindle to this projector, so I might catch up on my latest issue of Asimov’s on the ride home.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Make sure to get the Semen Stain ID app so that you know where not to put your foot.
    - Donald Petersen
      
      Ew! Is there really…? (sigh) Silly me. Of course there is.
    - oasisob1
      
      I can’t help but wonder if there’s an almost too-subtle dig about putting your foot in your mouth?
pjcamp

4? Geez, man, eat your Wheaties!
- Donald Petersen
  
  Perhaps that’s a warp factor.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Parsecs.
http://www.kleinbottle.com CliffStoll

Ouch – wearing a black jacket and dark jeans while biking at night? Dodging traffic up close? Gives this urban cyclist the heebies. Or maybe the jeebies…

What I’d like to see (and would be a delight if Matt could create) is a wearable vest that displays big bright messages using a matrix of leds. I imagine programmable flashing bars, stars, letters, or a message for the car behind me. Make the vest orange so it’s visible in the day, and interwoven with 3M reflective material, so it’ll show up in headlights even when its batteries are dead.

Hmmm – maybe I’ll hack something together…
- http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi
  
  Yeah! Cycling is too dangerous to be enjoyed by the masses! Let’s force people to wear absurd safety gear or make them feel like they’re engaging in something akin to snowboarding off a cliff.
  
  Seriously, cycling in most cities, day or night simply isn’t that dangerous, this idea that all cyclists must wear reflective vests, etc. does nothing but reenforces the idea that cycling is a fringe activity not worthy of serious consideration by governments or the general public. If you’ve got lights on, you’re doing ok.
  - Navin_Johnson
    
    He just needs to get a blinking white front light and blinking red rear light. Giving him the benefit of the doubt perhaps he has them and didn’t want to distract from his demonstration. Lights are very necessary even in bright cities. As a cyclist I’ve almost hit other people on bikes I couldn’t see who didn’t have lights. Lights are kind of a no-brainer. As far as covering yourself in reflective material, I agree that’s not as necessary.
John Irvine

It should be set up to project David Byrne’s face.
http://youtu.be/xNnAvTTaJjM?t=2m56s
http://twitter.com/mikeryz Michael Ryzewic

This is very cool – I’d think it would be fun to implement in software on an iDevice or Android phone rather than hauling an additional processor and battery around. Of course, I may be biased as I already use my iPhone as a bike computer for speed/cadence/HR…

Are there any ruggedized and wireless pico projectors out there?
disturbed

back-up with Solar power or use some sort of chargeable unit, so you are not having a high budget on battery usage.
Spencer Brown-Pearn

So…what are the assembly/disassembly times associated with not wanting someone to steal your projector, etc every time you need to get off your bike and can’t take it inside with you?