Rider Alert Mobile Application: Bluetooth enabled devices advertise that a bike is in the area. Your phone takes that data and alerts the user. The app when launched runs in background mode communicating with the central bluetooth manager of the phone and scanning for profiles advertising the "I am a biker service." WiFi drains battery rapidly and is not feasible for a small packaging for a device that people will actually use. Blue Tooth LE (Low Energy) can last for long periods of time and make a smaller packaging viable.

Rider Alert's solution features and functionality helps to reduce collisions between vehicles and pedestrians especially cyclists in urban street environments because the alert takes place within a vehicle.

Currently most people have smart phones and they usually bring these devices with them when they drive from point A to point B. In fact there are many accidents because drivers are inattentive due to the use of smart phones. Often the environment inside a car may be distracting with music, smart phones, and conversation which may prevent a drive from taking proper visual precautions when turning, merging, or switching lanes which according to the DOT report leads to a major portion of vehicle to bike or pedestrian collisions. Visual observation is made more difficult at night when cyclists may have inadequate lighting or in urban areas which do not provide sufficient lighting. In addition new vehicle sound proofing environments which are boasted as features in many new car models such as quiet ride would prevent the driver from receiving an audible notification that a pedestrian or cyclist is nearby.

Rider Alert is a mobile application which while running detects users carrying blue tooth LTE communications as they enter the proximity of the mobile user running the application. This provides further alert via an audible signal. If the mobile user (driver) is texting or has their eyes on the mobile devices screen which they should not, they will receive a further visual message in the top bar of their phone similar to a text message notification. As listed in the DOT's report visual objects like a standing truck or car common in urban areas may prevent drivers from observing incoming cyclists or pedestrians. Furthermore, side-view mirrors, rear mirrors do not accurately portray distance and state so "Objects may be closer than they appear." Rear cameras on cars are not accurate as well. The alternative is that a driver must turn around taking his eyes off an entire area where there may be oncoming or rapidly approaching cyclists or pedestrians.

Quality of Idea o Creativity - Repurposed technology that focuses on indoor mapping specifically centered on pushing Shopping notifications to users and turned it around to create a sonar like sensor system o Originality - This is wholly original mobile application integrated with Hardware.

Visual Presentation o How well executed - Rider Alert applies NUI – Natural User Interface Design: The User, the task, the device and the environment - where the user is the pedestrian, cyclist, or driver, the task is notifying each other to their proximity and presence especially when one or more is distracted or cannot see, the device is bluetooth hardware mounted on handlebars or carried by pedestrians and mobile phones for drivers, and the environment are urban areas where visual focus should remain on the task at hand but might be distracted by urban or self created environments. o Sophistication of the tech - iBeacon Blue Tooth Technology where Bluetooth focuses on proximity, not exact location. Bluetooth is not intended to offer a specific pinned location like GPS however it is sometimes known as a geo-fence or micro-fence solution, which makes it an indoor proximity solution, not an indoor positioning solution. Micromapping and indoor mapping has been linked to Bluetooth and to the Bluetooth LE based iBeacon promoted by Apple Inc. We built upon Texas Instruments Sensor Tag which leverages Blue Tooth Low Energy Technology. We used Texas Instruments SDK for the prototypes, testing, and demonstrations in the video.

Potential impact o Addressed partially above. DOT 2013 Sustainable streets reports that driver inattention (36%), Pedestrian (including cyclist) Error/Confusion (21.5%), Failure to Yield right of way (20.6%) are the major contributing factors to accidents. This total is over 77% of all accidents. Rider Alert will remind drivers to be attentive, remind drivers to yield right of way, and help drivers avoid pedestrian error/confusion by providing proximity notification via audible or visual (if they are on their phones while driving) notifications in the cars environment. There are also a slew of other factors listed which we will solve. This application also addresses causes cited where the pedestrian may have partially to blame.

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