A Customized Audio Track Tailored for Bike Stunts and Tricks
Hankerin' for a good ol' adrenaline rush while showin' off your bike tricks? Well, a gang of innovative students at the University of Washington have cooked up something fantabulous for you - the Music Bike! This bad boy generates music in real-time, responding to the bike's motion, taking your stunts to the next level.
The Music Bike sports a bunch of sensors, with an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, secreted beneath the seat, orchestrating the show. The MPU9250, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), captures the bike's position and motion data, while a handy hall effect sensor tracks the wheel speed and its rotational direction.
Once the ESP32-S3 snatches the sensor readings, it transmits the information via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to an Android app. This nifty app processes the data and employs FMOD Studio, an adaptive sound engine, to produce the music that's played through your speakers.
The students experimented with machine learning to detect those sick bike tricks, but battle-ax latency and accuracy foiled their plans. So, they switched to a threshold classifier and voilà! They managed to recognize jumps, 180-degree spins, forward and backward motion, and wheelies. FMOD Studio uses this information to fondle the music, altering pitch, mixing different instruments, and selecting tracks that complement the bike tricks. Their in-class demo, showcased in the video below (4:30 mark), was a total knockout!
Bonus points if you already thought the Music Bike is just another addition to our list of musically-inclined bicycles. We've also flaunted a music-reactive bike lighting system in the past!
A huge shout-out to [Blake Hannaford] for the heads-up!
The Music Bike, a spectacular invention by University of Washington students, is equipped with a variety of sensors, including an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, an MPU9250 inertial measurement unit, and a hall effect sensor. In coordination, these sensors transmit data via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to an Android app, where FMOD Studio generates music in response to the bike's motion, enhancing your adrenaline-fueled bike tricks.
