More Connected with our Bike.

Article n°1: Hexagon is a bike camera that turns your smartphone into a rearview mirror

by Chaim Gartenberg

How do you put rearview mirrors on a bike? It’s a tougher question than you’d think. The traditional solution of mounting them on the handlebars works for seeing to the sides of your bike, but unlike cars, there’s no ceiling to mount a mirror on for seeing directly behind you.

A startup called Smart Bike has an idea to solve this problem using a camera and a handlebar-mounted smartphone. Its first product, a camera called Hexagon, connects to a smartphone app and functions as a live safety camera. And while there have been other rear camera / taillight combos before, like the Cycliq Fly6[v], Hexagon has a few extra tricks up its sleeve, like live stream rides and tracking fitness activity and distance traveled. Hexagon also claims to be able to tell if you’re in an accident and can automatically notify your emergency contacts.

There are a few interesting hardware additions, too. Along with the camera, Hexagon features automatic turn and braking lights built into the device, and it provides a manual control ring for your handlebar. The turn signals also have the added bonus of making Hexagon look like a glowing red version of Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced x1. There’s also a integrated 6000mAh power bank, so you can use it to recharge your phone when you’re not biking.

Hexagon will start at $99 for early backers, which isn’t exactly cheap, but there's also a cheaper Hexagon Light model which cuts the turn signals down to $75 (again, for a limited number of early backers).

Smart Bike is officially launching the Hexagon next week on Indiegogo, so presumably more details will be available then. Since it’s crowdfunded, the usual warnings apply: Smart Bike is a new company that’s never shipped a hardware product before, so back accordingly

Article n°2: Google and Levi’s connected smart jacket will come out this fall and costs around $350

by Nick Statt

The connected denim smart jacket made in partnership between Levi’s and Google’s ATAP division now has a price tag, but its release date has been pushed from this spring to the fall. The jacket, which will cost around $350 when it goes on sale, is the first commercial product containing ATAP’s Project Jacquard technology, which uses conductive fabric to turn a standard article of clothing into a connected device of sorts that can send instructions to your smartphone, like pausing or skipping a song that’s playing by double tapping your wrist. Think of its functions as similar to those of a smartwatch, but less obtrusive and certainly a lot more stylish.

The news of the revised release date and the price was announced onstage at the SXSW festival here in Austin, where Levi’s global product innovation head Paul Dillinger and ATAP’s Project Jacquard lead Ivan Poupyrev held a discussion on the future of connectivity. Levi’s Commuter Trucker Jacket, as the product is called, was first announced at the Google I/O developer conference back in May of last year. At the time, we got a spring 2017 release date, but no price.

Still, a delayed product hitting store shelves this year is better than no product. After all, ATAP had to cancel its promising modular phone concept, Project Ara, last September. That leaves it now with Project Soli, a radar system for wearables that lets you make turn gestures into inputs without touching a screen. That project is still in the works and presumably on its way toward some type of developer or consumer product.

Resume:

This first article is about a new bike camera designed and engineered by a startup called Smart Bike. This product integrated a camera, a battery, and indicators to communicates with other drivers. It allowed riders have a look on what is behind them without risking stop looking forward with their smartphones connected to the camera via an app. This is an amazing safety feature because bicycle are vulnerable from behind. Also indicators will help a better communication and cohabitation between all road users . Nevertheless this device is cheap and will permit everyone use it!

The second article describe the new collaboration between Google and Levi's, who wants to created a connected smart jean jacket. This jacket will incorporate conductive fabric that can communicate with our smartphone and permit us be always more connected. It's the same use as a smartwatch but less obstructive and simpler. In a way company like google wants to help us with style but on the other side be informed of our habits.

To conclude those two technologies will allowed us be more connected in a simpler way and will help riders in their everyday use always with styling!