Al's Blog-o-Sphere

This is a followup to two earlier posts I made about bicycle taillights. Bike lighting is something I’ve been interested in because it’s become a fascinating area of the application of new technology to an old problem. That and I guess I’m obsessed with bright lights!

I received an email today from the developer of the LucidBrake Bike Tailight. They had found my post that mentioned their prototype and wanted to let me know that they have begun a Kickstarter project to get it up and running.

The light has evolved quite a bit since the video I showed in the post two years ago. It is now a octagonal PC board with the LEDs arranged in the corners. It is completely automatic, sensing motion and turning itself off when parked. It flashes while riding, but the big feature is that when it senses you coming to a stop, it flashes all the LEDS together brightly signalling a stop. It also has a different mode when it senses a sudden stop vs. a normal stop. Both should enhance a cyclists safety greatly. Continue Reading…

Last summer, I went on a ride with my friends the Recumbenteers. Rich has a camera that takes 3D photos and he often posts them online. He took this photo of me and put it on The Recumbenteers website.

To really appreciate the effect, you have to view it through a set of those 3D glasses, the kind with the red and blue lenses like what come in comic books or some movies. I didn’t have a set until recently, so I was missing out.

I saw some recently at the FIRST Robotics Championships in St. Louis, so I picked up a set. I have no idea what they were using them for, probably some promotional movie. But at least I can now enjoy Rich’s photos.