Belluzzi Gooble BikeBelluzzi Gooble Bike

Would you like to ride up to the Alps, in the streets of New York or simply up the Tuscany gentle hills? Now, using Belluzzi Gooble Bike you can do it directly from the comfort of your living room!

Belluzzi Gooble Bike is a stationary bike equipped with a computer display fixed on the handlebars which shows all the natural wonders and famous landmarks of Google Street View you may want to explore while riding your Gooble Bike.

The computer embedded in the display calculates the route and the slope adapting the resistance applied to the wheels while on the monitor you can enjoy the view of the places you are visiting.When there is a rise, the computer detects it and you will have to work hard as if you were actually riding up a steep slope.

The connection between computer and stationary bike is carried out using a microcomputer Arduino which simulates a mouse click with a frequency based on your speed.

Besides, hardware, firmware and software are Open Source licensed therefore, if you have an exercise bike and a computer, you can make your own Gooble Bike following the instructions published on our website!

Differently from most popular products which support only predefined routes, Belluzzi Gooble Bike lets you ride any route mapped by Google Street View!

The main ideaThe main idea was inspired by similar developments described on the Web by American Makers.The project starts from a stationary bike structure. It is a frame that houses a complete bicycle and allows to simulate pedaling uphill through the resistance of an electromagnetic brake . The Home Trainers typically offer also the speed measure and thee path length by means of a microcomputer that reads the speed of rotation of the rear wheel.Our implementation allows to integrate this system with a Google Maps Street View tying the progress into Street View presentation to motion parameters acquired by the Home Trainer.Tou can see Street View panoramas moving in a normal browser , by means a Web application that uses the Google Maps public functions; you can advance the presentation in relation to the pedaling speed: pedaling is transformed by the microcomputer into mouse clicks with a frequency proportional to the speed. System can also send the slope of the path,detected by the Web application through Google APIs, to the electromagnetic brake of the Home Trainer simulating the climb.

AdvantagesIt is therefore a non-conventional use of the services offered for free by Google Maps Street View realized through a set of software applications distributed under the Open Source license.The Gooble Bike works on all mapped routes of Google Street View without any limitation; you have to chose the start and end point of the path by providing the address or the geographical coordinates or by selecting them with the mouse on the Google map but we are studying a version where the path is selected in real time by the movements of the handlebar.

The ability to follow any Google Street View path is really the main difference of Gooble Bike from most commercial products which typically offer pre-shooted movies of the path (mainly stages of famous cycling tours); however these pre-shooted solutions offer a much more fluid movement while our solution shows a jerky movement between the panoramas of Street View.

Project schematicsThe block diagram shows main hardware, firmware and software components and their connections. Hardware components are symbolized by a box while firmware and software by a cloud and connections by arrows. User interface is based on a standard browser executing a Javascript application inside a web page. Web page comes from a local web server. The user may ask to perform a path and Javascript application queries resources to Google API server by means of the Internet. Resources offered by Google APIs are images, geocoding, elevation and paths. The Javascript application moves forward in the path by mouse clicking. Mouse clicking is emulated by Arduino USB port in HID mode. The Javascript application computes current slope as difference of elevation between current position and previous position and sends current slope info to a local MySQL data base using an AJAX technology. A background peer-to-peer UDP application sends continuously slope info to Arduino UDP peer application in order to drive electromagnetic brake. Direct connection between web client and Arduino microcontrollor is not possible owing to security limitations of browser technology.

MechanicsMechanical components:

Bike: any 26" or 28" mountain or road bike

Home trainer: any electronic driven home trainer for stationary bikes

Computer holder: a polycarbonate or polymetacrylate computer holderto fasten the computer to the handlebar

HardwareHardware components:

Computer: any small All-in-one computer with wall-mount assembly

Microcomputer: an Arduino Leonardo based microcomputer equipped withEthernet shield and a custom RS485 interface shield

Wiring: connections between computer, microcontroller, home trainer, networkand power supply

SoftwareSoftware components:

Client side software: client side software is a Javascript application embeddedinto a local web page that executes in any standard browser.

Server side software: server side software is a couple of php scripts hosted onlocal computer that connects client side software with Arduino firmware in order to overcome communication limits of the browsers.

Arduino microcomputer firmware: Arduino firmware is the code loaded into themicrocomputer that controls pedaling cadence and slope driving

Belluzzi Gooble Bike is distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL. This includes everything in the source code distribution except Arduino Hardware and Google API:

Arduino: Creative Commons AttributionShare-Alike license

Google API: Google Maps OEM licensing

The teamWe are a mixed team from the Technical School Belluzzi in Bologna, Italy formed by 8 students aged 17-19 from different classes of a specializing course in Computer Science/ICT: Matteo Colombo, Giacomo Fantazzini, Samuele Resca, Fabio Sabattini, Riccardo Maffei, Samuele Pederzini, Martina Pedrelli, Manuel Righi and 3 teachers: Duilio Peroni and Giovanni Ragno Computer Science teachers and Patrizia Casanova English teacher. The project has been carried out as an extra curricular activity both at school (after classes on a weekly bases) and and online using the e-learning Platform of the school to collect and share resources, design, exchange opinions, brainstorm, debate and solve problems on forums.

Each member of the team has contributed to the project providing his/her skills and sharing experiences in a very collaborative and enthusiastic atmosphere. With this project the team have combined their interest in cycling with computer science.

ReferencesOfficial project website: http://gooblebike.belluzzi.scuole.bo.it

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/belluzzigooblebike

Twitter page: https://twitter.com/BelluzziGoobleB

Google+ circle: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105718818115698511364/

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvIqHVv7ezdBI6tiYJ0vvgw

Flickr gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/101816681@N05/sets/

E-mail contact: duilio.peroni@scuole.bo.it

Belluzzi Gooble Bike is a project developed by:

Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Belluzzi-Fioravantivia G.D. Cassini, 3 40133 Bologna ItalyPhone: +390513519711Fax: +39051563656Website: http://www.belluzzifioravanti.itE-mail: belluzzi@scuole.bo.it