Computer science research goes wild! Starting in July 18, 2011, our Tacticycle, a novel bike navigation system for tourists, will be demonstrated on Borkum. For one week, tourists can rent the system for the cycling trips.
Background
In previous studies we found that tourists actually do not desire strict navigation support. Often, they only start with a rough idea where to go. They plan their route on-the-fly based on their surroundings and their intuition. With the Tacticycle we built a navigation system for bikes that aims at accommodating these usage patterns.
Tacticycle
The Tacticycle can roughly be described as a point of interest (POI) radar. Instead of streets and buildings the user gets a quick overview of the direction and distance of nearby POIs. As a special feature users can select one of these POIs. The Tacticycle then cues the direction of this POI by two vibration motors fixed to the handle bar. Instead of seeing its location on the screen the riders can feel where the POI is, which allows them to keep their eyes on the road.
