homework 8

The article I have chosen to do is “Coming to your bicycle: wireless braking?” written by Steve Almasy. The article was about a computer scientist by the name of Holger Hermanns who quote on quote “wasn’t out to change the way people bike” ended up doing just the opposite. What he had done exactly was create a wireless braking system. Holger had chosen a bike to test this device on for the sole purpose of it being an inexpensive piece of machinery that being an avid bicyclist, was very familiar to him as well as much safer to crash during tests than a train or a car. The wireless braking system is actually a quite simple contraption. This system works by the rider of the bicycle applying pressure to a sensor on the handlebars of the bike. The sensor then transmits to the brakes on the front forks exactly how much pressure should be applied according o how much pressure is applied to the previously mentioned sensor on the front handle bars. As of right now this system could still be technically considered a prototype with the system still being to quirky and weighing too much to be used commercially, with an estimation of approximately five years till it will reach this level even though the system has been tested to be 99.9999999999997 according to Saarland University. “Sensors will also measure brake performance, but unlike his bike prototype, the train brakes would not be operated wirelessly" states Hermann when disussing the use of this in larger vehicles such as the European Trains

                I do believe that Hermann’s has a good thing going and should continue on with his idea. It would be a great addition to many larger vehicles such as trains and road vehicles such as cars and motorcycles and could possibly not only make the vehicles themselves safer but also make roadways safer, especially for motorcyclists who are driving much smaller vehicles then others. As far as there being any complications I cannot foresee one at this point in time, though as with many of the advancing technologies, something has to go wrong before it can be corrected. So until this product is in use by a large number of people and the problems with the system unveil themselves I cannot predict whether this will be a viable product on the market or not.