[PLUG] open source bike gadget

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Mon Mar 15 20:32:43 UTC 2010


On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 09:51:31AM -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> Claims to be open source.
> 
> http://www.cerevellum.com/

It uses "open source development tools".  You can write closed
source apps with GCC, and open source apps with visual C++ . 
I'm glad they like our tools, but it is their own code that 
counts.   If it IS open source, and has a USB port, I can imagine
Russell building a wifi stumbler with it.

Notice how the time does not update on their "demo"?  A true demo
would be difficult - I don't expect that - but they could have
been less careless faking it.

Meanwhile, there are few specifications, which is not surprising,
because this is unlikely to work very well. 

The human eye is a very good camera, compared to most things
electronic and inexpensive.  The eye also has no latency, and
a video system will have field rate latency, at least.  Very
small delays are disorienting.  Not what you want for real-time
control, in a wide range of illumination conditions.

The LCD display will be a power hog.  It looks like a iPhone 
turned sideways, and probably has the same battery life as an
iPhone playing continuous videos.  So it may need frequent
recharging.  "Up to 9 hours" is weasel words that includes 
much smaller hours, especially as the battery gets old.

Still, it would be fun to play with one.  I will let somebody
else spend the $350 and try theirs - until theirs is stolen. 
I spent much less than that for my bike, decades ago.

Thanks for sharing it, though.  It reminds me that I need to shop
for a new helmet mirror.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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