Pedal Through Google Streetview on a stationary bike. A bike fit on a home trainer and equipped with a display showing a Street Vew which proceeds according to the pedalling pace. While riding, the incline is calculated and the brake torque is activated to simulate the slope. The microcontroller is based on Arduino hardware.

1. Belluzzi Gooble BikeBelluzzi Gooble Bike

2. Would you like to ride up to the Alps, in the streets of New York or simply up the
Tuscany gentle hills?
Now, using Belluzzi Gooble Bike you can do it directly from the comfort of your living
room!
Belluzzi Gooble Bike is a stationary bike equipped with a computer display fixed on the handlebars
which shows all the natural wonders and famous landmarks of Google Street View you may want to
explore while riding your Gooble Bike.
The computer embedded in the display calculates the route and the slope adapting the resistance
applied to the wheels while on the monitor you can enjoy the view of the places you are visiting.
When there is a rise, the computer detects it and you will have to work hard as if you were actually riding
up a steep slope.
The connection between computer and stationary bike is carried out
using a microcomputer Arduino which simulates a mouse click with a
frequency based on your speed.
Besides, hardware, firmware and software are Open Source licensed therefore, if you
have an exercise bike and a computer, you can make your own Gooble Bike following the
instructions published on our website!
Differently from most popular products which support only predefined routes, Belluzzi Gooble Bike
lets you ride any route mapped by Google Street View!

3. The main idea
The main idea was inspired by similar developments described on the Web by
American Makers.
The project starts from a stationary bike structure. It is a frame that houses a complete
bicycle and allows to simulate pedaling uphill through the resistance of an
electromagnetic brake . The Home Trainers typically offer also the speed measure and
thee path length by means of a microcomputer that reads the speed of rotation of the
rear wheel.
Our implementation allows to integrate this system with a Google Maps Street View
tying the progress into Street View presentation to motion parameters acquired by the
Home Trainer.
Tou can see Street View panoramas moving
in a normal browser , by means a Web
application that uses the Google Maps public
functions; you can advance the presentation
in relation to the pedaling speed: pedaling is
transformed by the microcomputer into mouse
clicks with a frequency proportional to the
speed. System can also send the slope of the
path,detected by the Web application through
Google APIs, to the electromagnetic brake of
the Home Trainer simulating the climb.

4. Advantages
It is therefore a non-conventional use of the services offered for free by Google Maps
Street View realized through a set of software applications distributed under the Open
Source license.
The Gooble Bike works on all mapped routes of Google Street View without any
limitation; you have to chose the start and end point of the path by providing the
address or the geographical coordinates or by selecting them with the mouse on the
Google map but we are studying a version where the path is selected in real time by
the movements of the handlebar.
The ability to follow any Google Street
View path is really the main difference
of Gooble Bike from most commercial
products which typically offer pre-
shooted movies of the path (mainly
stages of famous cycling tours);
however these pre-shooted solutions
offer a much more fluid movement while
our solution shows a jerky movement
between the panoramas of Street View.

5. Project schematics
The block diagram shows main hardware, firmware and software components and
their connections. Hardware components are symbolized by a box while firmware and
software by a cloud and connections by arrows. User interface is based on a standard
browser executing a Javascript application inside a web page. Web page comes from
a local web server. The user may ask to perform a path and Javascript application
queries resources to Google API server by means of the Internet. Resources offered
by Google APIs are images, geocoding, elevation and paths. The Javascript
application moves forward in the path by mouse clicking. Mouse clicking is emulated
by Arduino USB port in HID mode. The Javascript application computes current slope
as difference of elevation between current position and previous position and sends
current slope info to a local MySQL data base using an AJAX technology. A
background peer-to-peer UDP application sends continuously slope info to Arduino
UDP peer application in order to drive electromagnetic brake. Direct connection
between web client and Arduino microcontrollor is not possible owing to security
limitations of browser technology.

6. Mechanics
Mechanical components:
Bike: any 26" or 28" mountain or road bike
Home trainer: any electronic driven home trainer for stationary bikes
Computer holder: a polycarbonate or polymetacrylate computer holder
to fasten the computer to the handlebar

7. Hardware
Hardware components:
Computer: any small All-in-one computer with wall-mount assembly
Microcomputer: an Arduino Leonardo based microcomputer equipped with
Ethernet shield and a custom RS485 interface shield
Wiring: connections between computer, microcontroller, home trainer, network
and power supply

8. Software
Software components:
Client side software: client side software is a Javascript application embedded
into a local web page that executes in any standard browser.
Server side software: server side software is a couple of php scripts hosted on
local computer that connects client side software with Arduino firmware in order
to overcome communication limits of the browsers.
Arduino microcomputer firmware: Arduino firmware is the code loaded into the
microcomputer that controls pedaling cadence and slope driving
Belluzzi Gooble Bike is distributed under the terms of the
GNU GPL. This includes everything in the source code
distribution except Arduino Hardware and Google API:
Arduino: Creative Commons Attribution
Share-Alike license
Google API: Google Maps OEM licensing

9. The team
We are a mixed team from the Technical School Belluzzi in Bologna, Italy formed by 8
students aged 17-19 from different classes of a specializing course in Computer
Science/ICT: Matteo Colombo, Giacomo Fantazzini, Samuele Resca, Fabio Sabattini,
Riccardo Maffei, Samuele Pederzini, Martina Pedrelli, Manuel Righi and 3 teachers:
Duilio Peroni and Giovanni Ragno Computer Science teachers and Patrizia Casanova
English teacher.
The project has been carried out as an extra curricular activity both at school (after
classes on a weekly bases) and and online using the e-learning Platform of the school
to collect and share resources, design, exchange opinions, brainstorm, debate and
solve problems on forums.
Each member of the team has
contributed to the project providing
his/her skills and sharing
experiences in a very collaborative
and enthusiastic atmosphere.
With this project the team have
combined their interest in cycling
with computer science.

10. References
Official project website: http://gooblebike.belluzzi.scuole.bo.it
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/belluzzigooblebike
Twitter page: https://twitter.com/BelluzziGoobleB
Google+ circle: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105718818115698511364/
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvIqHVv7ezdBI6tiYJ0vvgw
Flickr gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/101816681@N05/sets/
E-mail contact: duilio.peroni@scuole.bo.it
Belluzzi Gooble Bike is a project developed by:
Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Belluzzi-Fioravanti
via G.D. Cassini, 3 40133 Bologna Italy
Phone: +390513519711
Fax: +39051563656
Website: http://www.belluzzifioravanti.it
E-mail: belluzzi@scuole.bo.it