Attached to the front forks of a bicycle is a small weatherproof enclosure containing a lithium battery. A magnet is attached to one of the spokes. When the magnet passes the module, it is triggered to the active state for 60 seconds. Typical battery life is 12 months of average use. A flashing LED indicates operation.
The module contains a transponder that, while it is activated, replies to pulses from short-range transmitters (30m range) mounted in motor vehicles. When the vehicle gets a response to its "ping", the driver sees an alerting graphical symbol to inform them that there is an active cyclist nearby.
Thus in heavy traffic or poor visibility, drivers will be kept aware of nearby cyclists, even if they aren't immediately obvious.
Transponders are free-issued to cyclists.
Vehicle systems are phased in on all new construction.-- 8th of 7, Aug 27 2011 TCAS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCASAcceptably effective [8th of 7, Aug 27 2011] Mining Vehicle Proximity Detector http://www.acumine....ducts/Proximity.phpSimilar system using mesh wireless system [AusCan531, Aug 28 2011] Big Vehicle didn't see Small Vehicle http://www.google.c...:0&biw=1280&bih=577 [AusCan531, Aug 28 2011] are you a cyclist? hmmm. ////revs //// REVS ////-- po, Aug 27 2011 Soon PetCo will be selling variants of these in the form of pet collars. [8th], you saint, you've just saved untold numbers of cats from untimely deaths on the road!-- swimswim, Aug 28 2011 I came up with a similar idea about 10 years ago to prevent Haulpaks (huge mine trucks) from crushing lighter vehicles in the area. These trucks are bigger than some houses and have little or no visibility of what may, or may not, be within 20 metres of them. I have attached a link showing a picture of a typical outcome.
As with many good ideas, it was beyond my resources at the time to actualize it and in the fullness of time other people did it.-- AusCan531, Aug 28 2011 No [twittyoneQuest], a ping is a ping,whether from a cat, your dogs, or a biker. Aiming for one ping is to aim for all of them, which would defeat the purpose. Cats++-- swimswim, Aug 28 2011 Can you incorporate a Taser guidance system into your Kitty Detection Circuitry? No matter. I'm in. [+]-- Grogster, Aug 31 2011 Good'n (+)-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 31 2011 You've missed the point entirely, [21] (my fault; it wasn't wearing a ping-collar).
The point of the system is that drivers are more cautious when they hear the "ping", not that they start looking for something to hit. If the latter is even part of their consideration, it will occasionally misfire, endangering cyclists -- defeating the purpose of the system.
Stray cats ++-- swimswim, Aug 31 2011 We are intrigued that [swimswim] does not appear to have noticed our apparent passive approval of attaching these devices to cats.
Of course, the devices attached to cats would squawk a different code from the one assigned to cyclists.
We also wonder why he has not noticed the remarkable resemblance to the other such system used in aviation, known since its inception by the TLA "IFF", which stands for "Identification Friend or Foe".
We invite other halfbakers to deduce the utility of having a cat, whether stray or otherwise, carry a device that clearly transmits its location every few seconds ....-- 8th of 7, Aug 31 2011 What you haven't explained is how you will keep the cat people from using your bike pinger in their cat collars. Will it process input from a triaxial acceleration sensor to distinguish between the movement patterns of a cat and those of a cyclist?-- swimswim, Aug 31 2011 random, halfbakery