The Purple Pedals ybike (photo courtesy Lomokev)

ybike (2008)

Yahoo’s Buzz Marketing team asked Uncommon Projects to research and develop 20 photo taking bikes in 10 weeks. Uncommon was responsible for developing the underlying technology to make the bikes work. The bikes were designed to operate both domestically and internationally and were shipped to 12 locations including Tanzania, Denmark, Tokyo, Lebanon, and England. When ridden, the bikes automatically snap photos and upload them to flickr every 60 seconds. Every photo is tagged with the bike’s GPS location so it can be viewed on an interactive map. Each bike is: Weatherproof, Location-aware, Net-connected, Solar-enabled and works for up to two weeks on a single charge. The research, fabrication files and source code have been freely shared for anyone to use and modify.

Highlights:

10 weeks from concept to delivery of 20 Bikes
Deep research on location-based technologies
Live photo uploads and mapping
Robust, custom application and dedicated hardware development
Modular design for remote support
Documented and shared research, prototypes and final design
Presented at Hackday and Maker Faire