Designing a smart cycling jacket

Abstract

Clothing for persons who are professionally or amateurishly involved in cycling must satisfy functionality, comfort, aerodynamics and aesthetics. Therefore, manufacturers of such clothing and footwear focus primarily on improving the properties of textile materials from which this type of clothing is made, and to a lesser extent on the visibility of cyclists. Namely, cycling can be a dangerous activity, especially in bad weather conditions, at dusk or during the night, when cyclists are not sufficiently visible as traffic participants. This problem has so far been dealt with in the way that cyclists wore reflective tape clothing. However, such protective clothing relies on the reflection of the light of the headlights of the upcoming vehicles and often does not reveal the presence of cyclists in time to avoid an accident. In order to increase the visibility of cyclists, as traffic participants, the Department of Clothing Technology of the Faculty of Textile Technology has started designing a smart jacket for cyclists that would ensure adequate visibility of cyclists in reduced visibility environments. This paper describes one of the possible solutions for increasing the safety of cyclists in traffic. The design of a cycling jacket incorporating Light Emitting Diodes on the front and back of the cycling jacket will be presented. The LE diodes on the front of the jacket, in the chest area, are lit all the time when driving, or after switching on the power source in the front pocket, while the back lights up when the switch on the left or right sleeve is pressed, depending on whether the cyclist turns to the left or the right. This makes the cyclist visible both from the front and back side, which is the purpose of making this prototype. This jacket has an advantage over the usual safety vests with reflective tape because the cyclist is visible at a greater distance and there is the possibility of signaling the direction of movement by installing the LE diode on the back of the jacket.