The entire concept of the Revolights sounds fascinating. A headlamp, and a tail-lamp, within the wheel of your bicycle itself! How it works is even more fascinating. Rather than illuminating your entire wheel as it goes round, the LEDs on the wheel know exactly which position to light up in, giving you the arc shaped light that you see when you’re riding your bike. The lights even adjust to the speed of your bike, so no matter whether you’re slowing down or speeding up, the lights adjust so that they go on and off only at the correct moment in time, maintaining the arc shaped light on the front and back of the bike.
A step up from the first edition of Revolights, these lights, titled the Eclipse+ come with a much better design that elegantly and easily sits on the wheels of your bike. The lights pair with your smartphone via the Revolights app and give you stats like LED battery power, bike speed, distance covered, and even weather alerts (so you can ride well-prepared). The lights are powerful enough to illuminate a 360° area in front of the bike, serving as great head-lights, whereas the tail-lights not only flash when you slow down, they can even help acting as indicators when you turn left or right, flashing in the direction you’re about to turn in, so that people behind you stay clued in. Oh, and since they’re so prone to grabbing eyes and fascinated looks, they also come with a theft-proof design that allows them to be traditionally locked along with your bike!
Designer: Kent Frankovich (Revolights)
Smarter headlights could guide you out of a rainstorm, but intelligent tail lights could enable communication between vehicles. At least, that's the idea behind a collaborative Connected Vehicle Safety project between Intel and National Taiwan University. Its purpose is so that you'll be able to know just what the vehicles around you are up to -- whether they're speeding or braking or making a left -- by receiving data from their tail lights. Your vehicle could then stop or accelerate automatically without you needing to intervene, or you could choose to react manually if desired. We saw a demonstration of the concept at a Research @ Intel event in San Francisco with a couple of scooters, so head on past the break to learn how it all works, with video to boot.