Would you buy something like this for your bike?

**orographic** · 7th March 2009, 10:18

I was reading this thread, earlier in the week, where a couple of people were talking about using emergency locater beacons, to add another layer of safeguard, in the event of an accident outside of normal phone coverage.

It got me thinking.

I have found myself in a situation, where working on a system along these lines, might be feasible.

I was already going to work on a communications unit for a motorbike ( as the ones i had looked at, that are already in the market, didn't quite meet my requirements), and that allows a backbone for this to work.

Operational concept, as it stands for the emergency part of the system is as follows :

1, bike detected over, or accelerometer detects value in excess of "safed" range.
2, warning tones/ spoken warning sent to rider's helmet, to stand bike up ( in the event of bike over) , or turn ignition off to cancel alert. unless cancelled, 1-4 minutes after triggering event, horn and all lights on bike pulse repeatedly, continuing until cancelled or end of battery. If action is taken, end of chain.
3, no action within 2-5 minutes of triggering event, rider assumed incapacitated.
4, system looks for known cellphones. If cellphone found, and signal present, then emergency services dialled. speech synth reads message asking for ambulance, giving location via GPS co-ords, and if able, the street lookup name.
5, if no cellphone available, or unable to dial emergency services, 403 Mhz beacon activated. Beacon continues till end of battery or cancelled.

Naturally, I still need to talk with a number of organisations, in order that the deployment and use of such devices causes as little disruption as possible, to existing safeguard layers.

So my question to you fine folks, would you want such a device available to you , would you pay for it, if so, how much.

basically what I'm asking is, is it worth my time to develop this?

**spacemonkey** · 7th March 2009, 10:29

Sounds pretty good, but perhaps also a panic button to activate in case of an accident where the G levels are under the accelerometer's activation gates and or coming across another accident where you don't want to divert time away from the injured to contact emergency services?

Your system dounds a cool idea though esp for touring.

**Gwinch** · 7th March 2009, 10:33

Also I'd suggest an override button located on the person in the event of a bike that is unable to be reached (say, down a hill) while the rider themselves is otherwise mobile. It'd save a probably unnecessary ambulance callout.

**skidMark** · 7th March 2009, 11:40

Yeah because i want to be laying in a ditch bleeding to death unable to move and all i hear in my ear is

BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP PICK UP MOTORCYCLE... CRASH HAS OCCURED DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON.

I would be willing to pay no more than 500 for it. and for the money would also want it to function as an everyday bike alarm.... so if somebody fucks with my bike while im in getting grocerys my helmet starts bleeping at me telling me somebodys fucking with it.

**orographic** · 7th March 2009, 12:44

Originally Posted by spacemonkey

Sounds pretty good, but perhaps also a panic button to activate in case of an accident where the G levels are under the accelerometer's activation gates and or coming across another accident where you don't want to divert time away from the injured to contact emergency services?

Originally Posted by Gwinch

Also I'd suggest an override button located on the person in the event of a bike that is unable to be reached (say, down a hill) while the rider themselves is otherwise mobile. It'd save a probably unnecessary ambulance callout.

Overrides in both a "standdown" and "panic" direction are planned for it, but I have to work out how to guard them so as to prevent false inputs ( a la cellphone in pocket). One idea for that that I have had, is to make it a double or triple action press button on the helmet unit ( something along the lines of "lift flap, press button, listen for confirmation that you are pressing the right button, press button again".. the confirmation being for the fact that if activated in panic mode, the user is likely to be .. well either panicking or well distracted, and might inadvertently be pressing the stand down button.)

Originally Posted by skidMark

Yeah because i want to be laying in a ditch bleeding to death unable to move and all i hear in my ear is

BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP PICK UP MOTORCYCLE... CRASH HAS OCCURED DANGER DANGER WILL ROBINSON.

lol @ the image, but at least the knowledge that a message for help is being sent, makes it slightly better than laying in a ditch, bleeding to death, unable to move, and all you hear is the sounds of nature, and the occasional cage zooming past on the road were they can't see you.

The assumption is, that if there are people on scene ( and if more than one, so much the better) , then they are going to be in a better position to tell ambulance comms what state you are in, than any device I can make will.
.. well not quite, I can make a module for it that can tell ambulance comms what your vitals are and probably even skip the stand down period if needed, but this would become cumbersome, and awkward to use on a daily basis, and if its difficult to use, people tend to not use it, thus it becomes junk.

I would be willing to pay no more than 500 for it. and for the money would also want it to function as an everyday bike alarm.... so if somebody fucks with my bike while im in getting grocerys my helmet starts bleeping at me telling me somebodys fucking with it.

hmm, possibly 2.0, but i'll look into it

**discotex** · 7th March 2009, 14:18

It's a great idea. I do most of my open road riding alone so it has appeal. It's all gonna come down to cost in the end.

**ducatilover** · 7th March 2009, 21:51

I would buy it, it is a brilliant idea

**caseye** · 7th March 2009, 23:24

As always time is money and your time to develope something like this is costly and should be, but if it could be done I'd use the product, no question, I guess right now thats the sort of response your'e after, so i hope you get lots of answers to your request in the affirmative.

**LBD** · 8th March 2009, 01:52

Good thinking
I carry a personal EPIRB when solo hiking off the beaten track for pretty much same reasons you would have one on a bike...only the reasons usually happen slower so it can be manually set off... Yes I would likely buy one, I am a moderatly high mile tourer often alone in quiet areas.

Now here is my thought, if you were to build a triggering mechanism, accelerometer , panic button, attached chord or whatever, unit and have it set to trigger the already available small personal EPIRBs, you may save production outlays and for those of us who already have an EPIRB, we would have to outlay less $$$$$.

**Grizzo** · 8th March 2009, 08:55

Yep, not a bad idea I guess.

**newbould** · 8th March 2009, 13:03

Now here is my thought, if you were to build a triggering mechanism, accelerometer , panic button, attached chord or whatever, unit and have it set to trigger the already available small personal EPIRBs, you may save production outlays and for those of us who already have an EPIRB, we would have to outlay less $$$$$.[/QUOTE]

Thats a good idea but it would need to be a half way box so that the EPIRB only thinks about going off for a while. Then if you have a down but not out you can cancel and not trigger a false alarm.

$500 certainly sounds OK for the original described device.

**orographic** · 8th March 2009, 14:06

Originally Posted by newbould

Thats a good idea but it would need to be a half way box so that the EPIRB only thinks about going off for a while. Then if you have a down but not out you can cancel and not trigger a false alarm.

No, If the EPIRB goes off at all SAR action gets taken by the receiving rescue co-ordination centre. It only needs that satellite to pick up a single data warble ( a few tenths of a second). Once this has happened, the only way to stand down a SAR action is to actually call the rescue co-ordination centre. so turning off the EPIRB isn't productive, in fact it tends to make them think the beacon has burned, so rather than rescue action, its a recovery action. That and you are leaving them with a larger area to search on. This costs, and a 403Mhz beacon tells them exactly who they are looking for.
This is why the delay on activation. It is much easier and cheaper on everyone involved to cancel the alarm prior to a warble being sent.

**Big Dave** · 8th March 2009, 15:58

>>Would you buy something like this for your bike?<<

No.

**quickbuck** · 8th March 2009, 17:10

Originally Posted by Big Dave

>>Would you buy something like this for your bike?<<

No.

Crikey Big Dave, you are a man of many words......

Any reasons?

I think it is a great idea. I would seriously consider it.
The fact is even if you are in Cell range, if you bin with it in your pocket, there is a high chance the phone will not work after you stop sliding.

The technology is becoming available at a reasonable cost, so it is about time we started to embrase it.

Orographic, you may very well be on to a winner.

**skidMark** · 8th March 2009, 17:14

Originally Posted by quickbuck

Crikey Big Dave, you are a man of many words......

Any reasons?

I think it is a great idea. I would seriously consider it.
The fact is even if you are in Cell range, if you bin with it in your pocket, there is a high chance the phone will not work after you stop sliding.

The technology is becoming available at a reasonable cost, so it is about time we started to embrase it.

Orographic, you may very well be on to a winner.

Big dave doesn't need it, hes harder than Chuck Norris.