Meet Precious, the bike that tweets his “feelings”

Bikes Computers & Mobile Fun & Games

I guess Precious didn’t want AJ the Fiesta having all of the telemetric sensing and twittering vehicular fun. Precious was created as a “smart” bike that can carry his rider, Janeen, across the US to raise money to benefit LIVESTRONG. Precious is outfitted with an array of sensors and a microcontroller, and like AJ, the system correlates that data into moods and thoughts that are then tweeted. I’m not really sure if all the tweets are pre-canned or if somebody is reading the sensor data and interpreting it as the thoughts and feelings of the bike and composing some of the content.

I really like the website and how you can scan back through the days traveled, see some of the scenery, direction of travel, relative speed, incline, and stats like: How much roadkill, how many times honked at, number of rainy days, miles traveled per day, and probably most importantly of all, how much money raised.

(And yes, I know I’m personifying Precious as a boy. They refer to him as such on the site. Hey, who am I to argue with a bicycle’s gender identity?)

Yes, I Am Precious
No Direction Known (Janeen, Precious’ rider’s blog)

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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