Raspberry Pi Dynamic Headlight detects and projects your bicycle’s speed

By Meghan McDonough March 20, 2013

dynamic-bike-headlight-2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’ve ever used a bicycle speedometer you know how much of a pain it is to take your eyes off the road, even for a split second, to see how fast you’re traveling. Even a quick glance at the handlebar computer can result in hitting a pothole or being doored. According to TechCrunch, an enterprising inventor from Brooklyn, Matt Richardson, has thrown a Raspberry Pi at this issue and created a small computer mounted to a bike that detects the bike’s speed and projects it on the ground in front of the bike. He calls it the Raspberry Pi Dynamic Headlight, and, while there’s no Kickstarter campaign yet, we’re guessing there will be one soon.

As this is a total DIY project, the implementation is a little crude right now but will be refined in later models. A small pico projector is mounted on the handlebars and is connected by an HDMI cable to the $35 Raspberry Pi mini-computer. Both the projector and the Raspberry Pi are powered via a USB battery pack that’s typically used to give extra juice to cell phones. The Raspberry Pi and the battery pack are attached to a triangular piece of wood that’s strapped to the bicycle frame. Like we said, it’s a bit crude right now, but it’s definitely a work in progress.

Currently, the Raspberry Pi Dynamic Headlight is only able to detect the bicycle’s speed, but Richardson’s goal is to add GPS and “animations and visualizations.” We hope he adds something as basic as a tripometer and as advanced as topographical maps. If nothing else, DIY inventions such as this show just how much is possible with a $35 computer, some programming and ingenuity. Check out the video below to see the Raspberry Pi Dynamic Headlight in action.

Image via Matt Richardson, Make

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Meghan McDonough

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Meghan J. McDonough is a Chicago-based purveyor of consumer technology and music. She previously wrote for LAPTOP Magazine…

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