Bike grid laser light #1 - Intro

It was some time ago, according to YouTube, over 8 years ago, that a video got stuck in my mind. It popped up in my feed once again last week, so I wanted to see what is needed to make it.

The project first appeared on Yanko Design, and, like most posts there, Lumigrids was just a design practice without the end product.

I searched far and wide and found no mention of any product, just concept art and ideas for the last 8 years, with the last being from 2020, and it shows a weird deja vu effect (note from future me as i had this post in draft for a while, I don’t know why I wrote that it has a wierd dejavu, but I’m leaving it in for future contemplation, there has to be a reason I wrote this).

The concept is interesting, but I can also see why it was never realized as a commercial product. It projects a laser grid in front of the cyclists, and based on how warped the grid is, the cyclists could be warned about potholes or any unevenness on the road.

Why not just use a bike light? Well, that’s the question. A bright bike light should reveal any obstacle, with the added benefit of being an actual light that lights up your path much further than this, making this approach nothing more than a gimmick. But an interesting one which, as mentioned, got stuck in my mind, and now that I have some grown-up money, I could actually get unstuck.

To start off, I was thinking of using a line laser. I know I have a line laser in the barn lab somewhere that was used in early experiments with laser line 3D scanning. But, then again, could it not be possible to make a lens that projects a certain image? eBay to the rescue.

A little search later, and we have this

So I ordered some lasers, lenses, and casings to put them in.

Now we wait for some free time to get them all put together, so stay tuned.