Our society and economic system are currently facing dramatic changes in their infrastructures and processes. Large corporations are constantly pushing new concepts, standards that will benefit them most. People watch television, and see those skinny athletes how they push themselves to the limits. Of course it wouldn’t be possible without using high tech technology these days. Especially cyclers are pushing their body to the extremes. They need to see how much calories have they burned, and calculate, how much they need to eat to maintain the power, speed, endurance.

I would like to see some mobile phones integrating really high end applications for measuring cycling data.

Professional cycling computers are currently developed by Garmin and Polar. Garmin made a great introduction of GPS based computers. We already have GPS smart phones that we can use for demographic shot of terrain. There comes the idea to incorporate some applications inside those smart phones, no need to buy additional cycling computer, that enables us speed, power wattage, location, altitude etc.

To monitor speed that bicycle is currently at, we could use GPS signal. With speed, we can then calculate distance, average speed, maximum speed etc. These data will be saved internally on phone’s memory. To measure cadence, we would use small device that is mounted on bicycle pedal. This will count the number of turns per minute, simply by small magnet. The data would be send to phone by using Bluetooth protocol. Each device will be equipped with code number, so you could enter inside you phone’s application. So there will be no interference with other cyclers in the group. You can add as many devices to the allowed list as you want.

For measuring heart rate, we would use strap that works with Bluetooth signal also. All those data we could then analyze on computed with different interfaces that our phone allows.

There could also be international database that allows other users to compare their results to others.

I could continue writing this idea with lots of fresh ideas. But since some of those applications are already there, let me show you what is currently already available.

Every Trail is a GPS application for your iPhone that displays odometer, speed, time and allows you to record and upload a track of your ride. Things you should consider is the battery lifetime. Showing landscape mode will lower your battery and your phone will not last for only ten hours. Further down the list we have iRPM+ iPhone application, B.iCycle cyclometer, Cychosis, MotionX-GPS, Pedal Brain which supports ANT+ cycling sensors such as SRM, PowerTap, Quarq, MetriGear & Garmin. ANT+ was invented by Garmin and is available to other vendors to incorporate hear monitoring in any device using chest strap.

Most of those fancy applications are available for free, some are not, but as I said it is not suitable for long rides, because you would need to constantly recharge battery. However if you have a dyno hub the new E-werk hub dynamo powered universal power supply might solve that problem.

We will see if Polar or Garmin is interested in developing such applications that will benefit us users that already have smart phones and doesn’t need to buy their expensive products. As they are priced above $200 currently and better models will cost you about the same as iPhone does.

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Filed under: GPS Reviews

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