About Bike Tracker

Problem Statement

In the United States, it is estimated that between 800,000 and two million bicycles are stolen each year. Many of these thefts occur because cyclists fail to lock their bike or use bike locks that are broken easily. In addition, once a bike is stolen, it is generally difficult to recover, especially in a city or on a college campus, because bikes can be transported so quickly and/or can easily blend in with other bicycles on a bike rack. Only about 5% of bicycles that are stolen are returned to their owners.

Our Solution

In order to prevent bicycle theft and help more bikes be returned to their owners, we decided to make a smart bicycle finder. This product we have created is specifically targeted towards college campuses where wifi is prevalent and it will be easy to utilize a GPS signal. First, the bike finder includes a GPS device that, when connected with a smartphone, informs a user where their bike is located at any given time. This feature also enables a user to view the last known location of the bike so that you can track the direction the bike is traveling on their smart phone. In addition, the device includes an accelerometer so that a user is alerted if significant movement was noticed on the bike. This is used as an alerting mechanism so a potential theft or robbery could be detected as quickly as possible. Finally, a battery will be used to power the device. A battery will be used because in order to be able to keep the tracker in a discrete location on the bike, a smaller / more compact power source would need to be used, and a battery would fit this requirement.