The cycling technology and software company, See.Sense, is releasing the first update to its intelligent bike light, by providing new features designed by its early adopters – some of whom literally are rocket scientists!
The design of the original See.Sense light, which has been on the market for a year, was carried out in consultation with hundreds of cyclists over a two-year period. It was launched on Kickstarter and went on to be stocked with Chain Reaction Cycles and a number of independent retailers in the UK.
See.Sense CEO & Technology Lead, Philip McAleese, said, “As well as feedback from our Kickstarter backers, we worked with an amazing test-group of volunteer customers. We were amazed at how enthusiastic they were, not to mention brilliant – several of whom have day-jobs as actual rocket scientists. We have their brains (and legs) to thank for the development of See.Sense 2.0.”
See.Sense reports that customer satisfaction with the product is high, with a recent company survey indicating that 92.7% of customers were very or extremely satisfied with how See.Sense improved their visibility to cars. Since the initial launch, the light has been developed further based on the collective wisdom of See.Sense customers using the light in real-life situations.
The new ‘2.0’ version launched on 1 October, in time for the northern hemisphere’s winter. It includes a new auto on/off function that puts the lights to sleep after three minutes of inactivity and wakes them up the next time the bike moves – making the lights even more intelligent.
Philip McAleese added, “There are certain things that we struggled with, or would have taken us longer to complete on our own, but thanks to the contribution from our talented customers, we have been able to accelerate this process, bringing a new version to market faster than we anticipated’.
With the release of See.Sense 2.0, See.Sense hopes to demonstrate that its customers have bought more than a traditional bike light, they have bought a piece of intelligent, upgradeable hardware and firmware.
Rather than replacing the old kit for new, owners of the light will be able to add new capabilities to their existing light. Cyclists updating to See.Sense 2.0 will not only be taking part in a product innovation that is new to the cycling world, but will also be acting in an ‘environmentally-conscious way by minimising the waste of outdated hardware.’
In what may be a first for the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, See.Sense believes it is the only company that has gone back to its earliest supporters and offered them an upgrade for free to thank them for their contribution. Those customers will only be required to complete a short user survey and pay the cost of postage to have their upgraded lights returned to them. The company also plans to make the upgrade available to the remainder of its existing customers at a nominal fee only.
See.Sense is a ‘daylight-visible bicycle light’, designed to help increase cyclist visibility and safety. Its intelligence means that it ‘knows’ when to flash faster and brighter to make the cyclist more visible. It is billed as the first bike light of its kind to use advanced, patent-pending sensor technology to monitor the cyclist, their bicycle and their environment, to enable situational awareness and intelligence.
See.Sense can detect scenarios where a cyclist may be at a higher risk. For example, See.Sense can detect when a cyclist is:
- at a road junction;
- filtering in urban traffic;
- on a roundabout;
- travelling in low light, such as under an overpass or in a road tunnel; and
- approached by a car with headlights on.
When a cyclist encounters such a situation, See.Sense will increase its brightness and flash rate to make the cyclist more visible to other road users.
Light performance is usually a trade-off between high brightness, long runtime and compactness. Often this means choosing any two at the expense of the third. See.Sense aims to break this rule by using its power intelligently, enabling it to be bright when needed yet still have a long runtime in a small package.
To achieve these features, See.Sense utilises cutting edge sensor technology, covered in a fourteen-page patent application that is currently pending.
See.Sense features:
- Intelligent sensor technology
- Daylight visible lights
- Long run-time
- Wide visibility
- Weather resistant
- Motion gestures
- Fuel gauge
- Personalisation
- Small, compact and sturdy
In addition to the sophisticated features of the original See.Sense, the new See.Sense 2.0 has:
- An auto on/off feature. A new auto standby has been perfected to put the lights to sleep after 3 minutes of inactivity and wake them up the next time the bike moves.
- Improved standby-time. Power consumption has been reduced in standby mode, giving 12 times longer standby time.
- Increased brightness. LED technology moves at an extraordinary pace so the light has been updated to deliver up to 11 extra lumens with no impact on runtime.
- Revised design and firmware. Minor changes to further enhance the performance and reliability of every See.Sense light.
The See.Sense intelligent light was designed in response to a problem See.Sense founder Philip McAleese faced daily as a cycle commuter. He was frustrated at how invisible cyclists can be to motorists and was shocked to read the statistics that nearly 80% of accidents involving cyclists actually occur in urban areas, in daylight, at road junctions and roundabouts. Most cycle lights are simply not bright enough to be effective in these situations.
Philip McAleese explained “I was looking at the smartphone I had on the handle bars. There was a lot of sensor technology on that device and I wondered could we use some of that to develop a light that’s bright when it needs to be and conserves energy when it doesn’t. It was really from there that I looked at the sensor technology that was in smartphones and integrated it into See.Sense to create the first intelligent bike light.”
See.Sense successfully launched on Kickstarter in October-November 2013 with almost three times its funding goal. The light has since gone on to be stocked at Chain Reaction Cycles and cycling retailers in the UK and Belgium, and is currently is discussion with distributors in the US, Australia and South Africa.
