Hexagon is a bike camera that turns your smartphone into a rearview mirror
How do you put rearview mirrors on a bike? It’s a
tougher question than you’d think. The traditional solution of mounting
them on the handlebars works for seeing to the sides of your bike, but
unlike cars, there’s no ceiling to mount a mirror on for seeing directly
behind you.
A startup called Smart Bike has an idea to solve this
problem using a camera and a handlebar-mounted smartphone. Its first
product, a camera called Hexagon, connects to a smartphone app and
functions as a live safety camera. And while there have been other rear
camera / taillight combos before, like the Cycliq Fly6[v],
Hexagon has a few extra tricks up its sleeve, like live stream rides
and tracking fitness activity and distance traveled. Hexagon also claims
to be able to tell if you’re in an accident and can automatically
notify your emergency contacts.
There are a few interesting hardware additions, too.
Along with the camera, Hexagon features automatic turn and braking
lights built into the device, and it provides a manual control ring for
your handlebar. The turn signals also have the added bonus of making
Hexagon look like a glowing red version of Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced x1. There’s also a integrated 6000mAh power bank, so you can use it to recharge your phone when you’re not biking.
Hexagon will start at $99 for early backers, which isn’t
exactly cheap, but there's also a cheaper Hexagon Light model which cuts
the turn signals down to $75 (again, for a limited number of early
backers).
Smart Bike is officially launching the Hexagon next week
on Indiegogo, so presumably more details will be available then. Since
it’s crowdfunded, the usual warnings apply: Smart Bike is a new company
that’s never shipped a hardware product before, so back accordingly.
The article was published on : theverge
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