21th Century “Chonmage” ARider

Hi there, how are you?

When I walked on the street of Tokyo the other day, from a bit far I saw a bike rider who seemed to have something “creative” chonmage on his top.  

At first, I was wondering who he was. “He has chonmage like something, so is he a Sumo wrestler? or a 21th century style Samurai??” As I approached to him, I found that it was not chonmage, but an iPhone!! And I found the rider was my friend, Sho. What surprised me more was that he wore a scouter (an item used in Dragon Ball) like equipment too.

As I asked him what he was doing with such technological equipments, he answered it was a test ride with an experimental mapping application by Mr Kondo.

What he wore was a retractable HMD connected with the screen of iPhone. iPhone 3GS  has a compass and is good GPS receiver too. So the map rotates  as he changes its direction. The rider with the equipment can check the map of current location displayed on the HMD. (However, be careful! Sho said it was dangerous to see the map when pedalling a bike!! So it was used when he stopped his bike at the traffic light or other places. )

This is a video clip of how equipments work and how Show ride a bike with it….

Also with this equipment and TwitBird Pro, you can receive real-time Mention of Twitter.  When it is used with A2DP of Bluetooth, speaking on the phone hands-free during the ride.

As we mentioned the future style of mobiles before, these “21th century Samurai style” could be popular? There is certainly room for improvement, and thought the map can show the direction of your way, it cannot indicate the future unfortunately. 

However, I believe it predicts something for future and think that in the future, some devices like this and possibly more useful, comfortable and, of course, safer! for bike ride would be available.

See you on the next map 😀