In a possible future where only autonomous vehicles would drive on the road, cyclists would be in danger – assuming current technology comes to a halt. Enter an innovative jacket that would make them accurately visible, while also enabling them to “communicate” with AVs.
Philip Siwek recently graduated from the Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in Richmond, Canada and his project on a retroreflective 2D barcode cycling jacket just earned him the bronze award at the 2019 IDEA International Design Conference in Chicago, Illinois. It is the solution to making cyclists entirely visible to AVs in all conditions, he says in a blog post on his official website.
Currently, cyclists represent a unique challenge for AVs in that they’re “light, nimble and fast” and oftentimes unpredictable, while their bikes have an “open structure, low mass, and minimal surface area,” which means LiDAR doesn’t receive enough laser strikes for accurate detection. Add environmental conditions like nighttime, fog, heavy rain or heavy traffic in an urban environment, and an AV’s sensors, cameras and object-recognition algorithms have issues correctly identifying a cyclist or predicting his movements.
Siwek’s jacket would solve this by incorporating retroreflective QR Codes. The position of the codes tells the AV the exact position and location of the cyclist, and any movement would translate into direct “communication” with the car’s sensors. Testing showed Siwek that the codes are visible to sensors and cameras even in unfavorable conditions, like in thick fog or at night.
“As a user moves their arms from a standard riding positions to give a hand signal, the positions of the barcodes on the jacket will change its orientation on the cyclist and in space. These different barcode positions can correspond to specific cycling hand signals, allowing the cyclist to communicate intend to surrounding AVs,” Siwek explains.
Siwek even made sure to place the barcodes on the prototype in such a way as to remain visible even when the cyclist is wearing a backpack. He says he noticed most commuters wear a backpack, so he made sure this remained an option for them even when wearing his product.
Ultimately, wearing the jacket would guarantee a safe environment for cyclists. There is a caveat, though: chances are that, by the time we’ll only see AVs on the road, technology will have improved to allow better cyclist detection, even in unfavorable conditions.
Currently, cyclists represent a unique challenge for AVs in that they’re “light, nimble and fast” and oftentimes unpredictable, while their bikes have an “open structure, low mass, and minimal surface area,” which means LiDAR doesn’t receive enough laser strikes for accurate detection. Add environmental conditions like nighttime, fog, heavy rain or heavy traffic in an urban environment, and an AV’s sensors, cameras and object-recognition algorithms have issues correctly identifying a cyclist or predicting his movements.
Siwek’s jacket would solve this by incorporating retroreflective QR Codes. The position of the codes tells the AV the exact position and location of the cyclist, and any movement would translate into direct “communication” with the car’s sensors. Testing showed Siwek that the codes are visible to sensors and cameras even in unfavorable conditions, like in thick fog or at night.
“As a user moves their arms from a standard riding positions to give a hand signal, the positions of the barcodes on the jacket will change its orientation on the cyclist and in space. These different barcode positions can correspond to specific cycling hand signals, allowing the cyclist to communicate intend to surrounding AVs,” Siwek explains.
Siwek even made sure to place the barcodes on the prototype in such a way as to remain visible even when the cyclist is wearing a backpack. He says he noticed most commuters wear a backpack, so he made sure this remained an option for them even when wearing his product.
Ultimately, wearing the jacket would guarantee a safe environment for cyclists. There is a caveat, though: chances are that, by the time we’ll only see AVs on the road, technology will have improved to allow better cyclist detection, even in unfavorable conditions.