When you're cycling past parked cars on a busy road, you've really just got to hope that none of those vehicles' drivers decide to open their door right in front of you. Well, a new prototype device could help keep that from happening. It's called Life Sticker, and it's designed to cost less than €2 (about US$2.38) to produce.
Life Sticker adheres to a car's driver's-side wing mirror, and is powered by an integrated spherical solar cell.
An onboard accelerometer detects when the vehicle has stopped moving, at which point a directional Bluetooth antenna comes into play. If that antenna detects the Bluetooth signal from the smartphone of a cyclist approaching from behind, a red LED on the Life Sticker will start flashing, letting the driver know that they shouldn't open their door.
We're told that in the technology's current form, the cyclist would need to be running a Life Sticker app. Down the road, however, that may not be necessary.
The device was invented by Duokai Wang from the Shanghai office of electronics firm Semcon, as part of an internal competition. Plans call for it to be commercialized and available within a year.
You can see a demo in the following video.
Source: Semcon
