The cyber-physical bike: a step towards safer green transportation

Abstract

To improve road cycling safety, we present an approach that augments bicycles with video processing and computational capabilities. This Cyber-Physical bicycle system continuously monitors the environment behind the biker, automatically detects rear-approaching vehicles, and alerts the biker prior to the approach. In this paper, we (i) identify biker safety as a problem that can be addressed using mobile video sensing and processing, (ii) present the design of a Cyber-Physical bicycle system, which applies video processing techniques to perform automated vehicle detection, and (iii) demonstrate the feasibility of this system through the evaluation of our prototype implementation. Early results show that our approach operates with good accuracy at normal frame rates, and can perform detection in real time with reduced frame rates.