The BikeNet mobile sensing system for cyclist experience mapping

TLDR

The authors present BikeNet, an extensible mobile sensing system that maps cyclist experience using opportunistic sensor networking and describe its prototype, evaluation, and user interfaces. BikeNet employs Moteiv Tmote Invent motes and Nokia N80 phones to collect personal, bicycle, and environmental data, dynamically assigning roles for real‑time or delay‑tolerant uploads through sensor access points, inter‑bicycle data muling, and a networked repository that archives, retrieves, visualizes data and supports a web portal for community sharing. Evaluation shows that BikeNet accurately quantifies cyclist performance and environment, and that its networking performs reliably despite bicycle mobility and human unpredictability, while its interfaces effectively present real‑time and archived data. See reference [4] for visualizations of a user’s rides.

Abstract

We describe our experiences deploying BikeNet, an extensible mobile sensing system for cyclist experience mapping leveraging opportunistic sensor networking principles and techniques. BikeNet represents a multifaceted sensing system and explores personal, bicycle, and environmental sensing using dynamically role-assigned bike area networking based on customized Moteiv Tmote Invent motes and sensor-enabled Nokia N80 mobile phones. We investigate real-time and delay-tolerant uploading of data via a number of sensor access points (SAPs) to a networked repository. Among bicycles that rendezvous en route we explore inter-bicycle networking via data muling. The repository provides a cyclist with data archival, retrieval, and visualization services. BikeNet promotes the social networking of the cycling community through the provision of a web portal that facilitates back end sharing of real-time and archived cycling-related data from the repository. We present: a description and prototype implementation of the system architecture, an evaluation of sensing and inference that quantifies cyclist performance and the cyclist environment; a report on networking performance in an environment characterized by bicycle mobility and human unpredictability; and a description of BikeNet system user interfaces. Visit [4] to see how the BikeNet system visualizes a user's rides.