Transportation in the 21st and 22nd century is bound to be different than we could ever really expect it to be but still what one group of researchers are working on would be quite the advancement in riding a bike.
The Australian Hoverbike is one concept that sounds really cool when you actually start talking about it, even if it is something that doesn’t appear to be anywhere near ready for action on an everyday basis. There was also a foldable scooter that had a large carrying space but was mostly known for the fact that it was pretty easily transported even when you weren’t riding it.
The newest endeavor in this particular line is one being put together by the Parlee Cycles group as a part of the project known as the Toyota Prius Projects. The final goal is to make it possible to be able to have this bike shift gears using thought control. Right now the bike, known as the PXP officially, can actually switch bears using a smartphone, which may seem a bit cumbersome when you start thinking about dialing up a button on the iPhone as opposed to just flipping a switch on the bike itself but it is an important step forward in getting to their final goal. The bike itself is a nifty looking little thing that seems to sit somewhere between the usual time trial racing bike and a regular road ready bike.
When the PXP is actually outfitted in a way that will allow the rider to control the gear shift with their mind, they will use an improvement of the mechanisms that are currently being used to interface with the iPhone. This souped up form of communication would depend on neurotransmitters in the rider’s helmet that would communicate with a transceiver on the bike’s seat that would then communicate wirelessly with the gear shift.
A company known as “DeepLocal” is working on this particular technology and those who are interested in a project that would seem to have far reaching implications in other forms of transportation can follow the play by play of the development on the blog “Prollyisnotprobably.com.”
