Bicycle Safety Vest

Who is it for?

The bicycle safety vest is primarily for bicyclists that frequently ride in dense areas with many cars or for riding very early in the morning or late at night when visibility is poor.

What does the system do?

Broadly, the system gathers inputs from the bicyclist to then display on the back of the vest the bicyclist wears. The bicyclist has a couple simple interactions he or she can make with the bicycle to perform all of the functions.

• Each side of the handlebar has a button on it that signals a turn in that direction when pressed.

• The bicycle's brakes have stretch sensors built into them so that whenever the bicyclist brakes, the brake animation on the vest automatically plays.

• There is a knob in the center that changes the frequency and brightness of the lights for all animations.

• There are also 3 LEDs that act as reference for the bicyclist so that they know when either turn signal or the brake lights are on.

Why is it useful?

Currently, existing bicycle safety devices simply consist of a small, singular LED that is not very clear what different flash rates mean. By having large LED strips, our project can display arrows for turning as well as have a small section of lights always blinking for running lights and aggressively blinks the whole panel for braking. These functionalities are similar to current indicators for cars, so drivers are already familiar with them.