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Can cycling get safer via LED lighting? (video)

By | December 4, 2011, 10:28am PST

Summary: Kent Frankovich has developed a design that makes it easier for bike riders to see and be seen by essentially mounting LED lights onto the wheels of the vehicle.

In his Silicon Valley apartment, inventor Kent Frankovich is trying to make cycling safer–with a spin on the good old-fashioned bike reflector. Frankovich has developed a design that makes it easier for bike riders to see and be seen by essentially mounting LED lights onto the wheels of the vehicle. SmartPlanet catches up with Frankovich to look at his invention that is still in development.

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Larry Dignan, LED Lighting, Light-emitting Diode, Video, Frankovich, Engineering

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

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the real problem with lighting is front and back
de_vogon 5th Dec
by the time a car sees the side it's too late (or you're too far away to matter). Front and back are where the lights are really needed.
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RE: Can cycling get safer via LED lighting? (video)
ShqTth 4th Dec
I have something similar like those on my bike, but the lights are not smart other then they only turn on whrn the bike is moving wink But this is really cool.
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RE: Can cycling get safer via LED lighting? (video)
DJK2 4th Dec
putting some leds on a wheel is "inventing something" .. ye I put lights on object x and now it's easier to see in the dark" .... I yesterday watched Tron, most wheels of vehicles in that film give light as well happy
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RE: Can cycling get safer via LED lighting? (video)
squirrrl 4th Dec
I also have a light that hooks onto my spokes so, though revolights are much cooler than my simpler lights, I would have several concerns.

1) My lights were very cheap. I can't imagine that these revolights will be cheap or even twice the price or less than mine.

2) the battery on my spoke lights last for a long time. I only have to change the battery about once a year or less and I ride my bike for about 3-4 hours a week at night (lights on). With all the extras in the revolights, how often would I have to change the light? Lets assume it has a slight advangtage in safety over the lights I own, wouldn't that advantage disappear if i'm on my usual 1 hr night ride and these lights suddenly run out of juice? At least with the ones i have, you can tell when they are going to die because they dim significantly but over a long period of time, so i have plenty of time to change the battery before they die completely. This is not the case with my headlight (planetbike 2W) which has died during my ride a few times without warning (I try to carry extra batteries with me for that reason)

I guess without knowing more about cost and power consumption, I don't think this is necessarily better than the much cheaper alternatives out now.
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Simple logic will give you an approximate answer
wackoae 4th Dec
@squirrrl To get an approximate answer, you need to just use simple logic.

#1- He is using LEDs and LED use less than 15% of the energy required to power the lights you are currently using. Power wise, it would not cost more and last 7 times longer with the same battery pack. Chances are that the cost of power (if any) will be lower.

#2- LEDs will definitely cost a little more (although I have no idea why ... the use to be extremely cheap). But unlike LED light bulbs, this are very simple LEDs, so the price difference on the light itself may be negligible.

#3- Where I see a cost is in the computerize lighting. The computing power required to perform the kind of control shown on the video (where LEDs only light for the fraction of micro-seconds at very high rates) may cost about $30-$50 in parts for manual/low production (without factoring the labor cost), but that cost may be drop to $10 or less for factory production. If he can design something that uses OEM embedded parts and all that is required is the embedded software ... it may be as little as $2 for a large production.

But in the end, you can see from the video that even at a $200 price tag, the difference in security is exponential. I did not notice the bike with the front light until sometime later. The light wasn't bright enough to show a moving vehicle ..... and I see this problem on a daily basis when I get out of work. Bicycle riders WITH THE PROPER GEAR, are barely visible until you get close ..... most of the time too close to react in case of an emergency.
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Lacks simplicity
Userama 4th Dec
What's the advantage of mounting the LEDs on the wheels? Seems like a few LEDs mounted horizontally on the handlebars would provide LOTS of light and not be as prone to failure or damage as they would be on the rims. And a very small horizontal bar of LEDS on the rear would provide the same protection. Plus, I agree with the poster who mentioned that the "smarts" needed to sync the lights on the rims is a power waster.
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the real problem with lighting is front and back
de_vogon 5th Dec
by the time a car sees the side it's too late (or you're too far away to matter). Front and back are where the lights are really needed.

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