Final: Making Wireless Toys

As of now my project is named “flow”. It will be a device that tracks height and rotation for bmx riders. Some day I hope this device will be developed further to track an extensive library of bmx tricks.

Look and Feel Prototype:

1.
This device will be mounted on the down tupe on any bmx frame. This is the ideal placement due to it being the point of least contact during riding and other bmx tricks.

The electronics for the device will be imbedded into this foam pad that will be wrapped in decorative fabric. Not only is the padding practical but, the padding holds a nostalgic feeling to most riders and will be a retro throw back reference to the younger days of freestyle bmx of the early 1980’s.

Role Prototype:

1.
In the role involving the average consumer, I imagine this product being used as a way to document tricks and rider progression and sharing it on line.

2. I also can see a role being used in conjunction with a video camera app or camera app on smart phones to aid this documentation, sharing, and user experience.

3.
My last predicted role, this product could be used during televised competitions to create athletic statistics. A rider’s average speed, height, and rotation could be documented and displayed in a news ticker during the competition.

Future Prototypes:

1. I imagine that this will built as a smart phone app,to work with the sonic range finder, as smart phones do possess most of the necessary hardware to achieve this. I am just concerned about physical placement of the phone on the bike or the body of the rider, and types on phones varying in too much of a degree for it to be widely accepted.

2. My second implementation involves actually building the electronics using arduino. I would like the arduino to transmit the athletic statistics to a smart via blue tooth.
I have already begun to test out a variety of sensors for this project. The height from the ground information will be gathered using an ultrasonic range finder, and rotation will use a combination of accelerometers, composes, and gyros. All of this will need to by gyroscopically mounted to the down tupe the bike frame.

Precedence:

1.
Sports Bio Engineering PhD student Tristan McNab plans on developing iphone software to track athletic information during track and field sports .

also here is a link to an array of athletic uses for various sensors http://wockets.wikispaces.com/WirelessMonitors

2.

3.
http://www.revolights.com/