Whilst watching BBC Breakfast a few weeks back, I found myself fascinated by a jacket. Not exactly the fashion kind, but a life saving, wouldn’t look at all bad on most people, would help to reduce road rage kind!
In yet another clever design for the future, an American inventor based in the UK has won an international design competition.
The designer rustled up the idea for the jacket because we wanted to feel safer when cycling the streets of London.
Michael Chen told Louise Minchin and Bill Turnbull on Breakfast “I cycled round London in the dark wearing my first prototype. It was a £10 waterproof jacket with LEDs stuck on by gaffer tape. For the first time, I noticed that cars passed me more slowly, gave me more room, and that the drivers and passengers were even making eye contact.”
Here comes the science bit
The jacket uses an accelerometer to sense the movement of the cyclist, changing the colour of LEDs on the back of the jacket from green when accelerating or red to when braking.
If the cyclist stretches out either arm a tilt switch in the jack also makes LEDs in the arm flash amber to indicate the cyclist is indicating to turn left or right.
Have a look at this video here to see what it’s all about and how it works (3 minutes long).
I can see that cyclists of all ages, but of course parents especially, will be falling over themselves the nation over to get one.
