The Haptic Cycling shirt uses vibrations for effective training. The project is a collaboration between ByBorre and Elitac Wearables.

Effective training

Interval training helps cyclist to become stronger and faster. It consists of a series of repeated rounds of exercise. During each interval you work at a set Heart Rate (HR) zone for a specific period of time which is followed by a low intensity recovery period (lower HR zone).

These training sessions are either done on an indoor trainer or outdoors on a bike with the use of a bike computer. Indicator lights on the bike computer show in which HR zone you are currently cycling.

The Haptic Cycling shirt uses haptic signals to inform the cyclists whether he/she is in within the targeted heart rate bandwidth. This allows the cyclist to focus on the road again.

Intuitive Feedback

The haptic signals are provided intuitively to the cyclist, when you need to speed up, the vibration motors give an upstroke sensation. They will stroke down when you are above the set HR zone limit.

ByBorre x Elitac Wearables

The project is a collaboration between ByBorre and Elitac Wearables. Studio ByBorre designed and knitted the shirts. The role of Elitac was to integrate the vibration motors and electronics to connect a mobile phone that runs the software application.
At the time I was employed by Elitac Wearables. My role was to research in what way vibrations could benefit (the training of) cyclists. I’ve translated this to a set of wireframes for the demonstrator app as well as to concept drawings for the placement of the vibration electronics.

Future developments

Currently, the haptic cycling shirt works with a basic demonstrator smartphone app to show the proof of concept of translating HR zones to haptic signals. The same principle can be applied to other kinds of information to the cyclist: e.g. Power Zones (Watts) but also upcoming traffic when descending or navigation information about the route.

Future developments

Currently, the haptic cycling shirt works with a basic demonstrator smartphone app to show the proof of concept of translating HR zones to haptic signals. The same principle can be applied to other kinds of information to the cyclist: e.g. Power Zones (Watts) but also upcoming traffic when descending or navigation information about the route.

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