The goal of Smooth Ride, by Noah Vawter, is to present cyclists with the data they need to plan the smoothest bike rides possible in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The smoothest bike ride is the path with the fewest bumps in the road, the least traffic and traffic noise.

To collect the data, a bicycle has been outfitted with several sensors (accelerometers, sonar range finders and microphones), a GPS, and a microcontroller. The microcontroller software reads the sensors, processes them, and records them. A desktop software extracts the data from non-volatile storage, and converts them into a form useful to bikers.

In this case, a colored path of the rider’s routes is traced out and overlaid with maps and satellite photography. The color indicates the road quality: green means “smooth,” red means “avoid” and white/gray means “average.”

DOC of the project.