Abstract

Cycling is a popular sport for the health benefits, its competitive nature and just because cycling is fun. While there exists a variety of apps and tools to track your progress and find groups to ride in, they all fall toward the side of serious data driven cycling.

Ghost Ride intends to challenge the status quo of normal fitness tracking by focusing on fun and encouraging spontaneous competition among riders who ride in the same area but might not ever met each other by leveraging the functions of the smartphone in novel ways.

Why

Ghost Ride is needed now because the technology to make this happen is ubiquitous now. There is no better time to try to leverage that to create novel augmented experiences. Ghost Ride’s biggest goal is to take the kind of data normally collected by existing cycling trackers and leverage it in such a way that it becomes both intrinsically rewarding and more actionable in the moment.

Where

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Cycling is often a solo or small group activity. The areas where these rides take place varies greatly, from local bike paths, country roads, urban commuting all the way to famous climbs like the Alpe d’Huez. Essentially, bicycle riding takes place anywhere there are roads (and sometimes where there isn’t) under a variety of different circumstances from training, enjoyment, commuting, exercise or recreation. All of this situations are places where Ghost Ride can enhance the social aspect, improve training and generally elevate the experience.

There exists a number of fitness tracking and dedicated cycling applications, but no approach the idea of spontaneous social fun in the way Ghost Ride does. The most popular cycling tracking apps for iOS/Android are Strava, RunKeeper, MapMyRide. They offer a lot of data but lack the ability to quickly compare this information while out riding. In other words, they are great for reviewing how you did after the fact not providing motivation while out performing those activities.

What

Ghost Ride Aims to:

• Augment solo riding experiences to help force cyclists past performance “plateaus” using a “Ghost Ride” feature.
• Foster spontaneous “Grand Road” challenges among local riders by allow them to issue race requests to riders in a geographical area.
• Allow riders to upload detailed “Challenge Stages” for others to beat.
• Allow riders to create profiles, which serve the purposes of keeping rides safe and legitimate, but also as bragging rights.
• Make the “data” of the cycling experience more visceral and easy to interact with while out riding.
• Create small groups of local/distant individuals that push each other to improve even if they aren’t riding together.

Features:

 

Going for Ghost

Nearly all fitness trackers allow you to compare times over the same routes, either with others or your own previous times, but they don’t take the chance to make the data real.

This is where Ghost Ride differs. Instead of comparing times over miles or total route a “Ghost Ride” provides real actionable data while your out riding.

Examples:

“Just 10 feet behind” – imagine seeing that you’re just 10 feet behind the ghost your racing, instead of times you can feel like you’re approaching a real rider ahead of you.

A more “realistic” racing experience. Speeds differ greatly while out riding and just knowing average times can’t accurately reflect that. By knowing the distance you are behind or ahead of a “ghost” you can see how you perform at different aspects of riding. Maybe you realize you excel at hill climbing but fall behind on the flats. Knowing this can show you what you need to focus on to improve your all around riding, or just what you find fun.

Taking A Cue From Games

Games are made to be rewarding, and by taking aspects of what other fitness games have done it came make the idea of racing a “ghost” even more real.

Zombies, Run! Uses sound cues to encourage runners who use the app. Ghost Ride does the same thing to make your races seem more real.

Sound Off! Ghost ride makes it seem like a race with cheers of crowds when you excel at a challenge, such as passing a ghost or maintaining a high intensity for a period of time. The click of freewheels, or even the breathing of a rider next to you can help push you that much farther and really make you push your limits.

Throw down the glove!

Ghost Ride will allow riders to issue challenges to other riders based on GPS location. Everyone who rides into the area using the Ghost Ride app will get an alert that a challenge has been issues. Challenges have a date and time, and when accepted the challenging party gets a notification. On the date the challenge was set the riders meet up to see who wins (or go for a friendly ride).

Meet local riders while out on the road.

Ghost Ride has the option to get alerts about nearby riders who are also using Ghost Ride. If 2 riders meet up they can agree to engage in a “Challenge Encounter” where they can participate in flash challenges against each other, such as farthest distance in 30 seconds or a race around a nearby popular ride segments.

Outcomes

Ghost Ride  is intended to be a iOS app, with the possibility for android app later on. There will also be an online community website for profile management.

Possibility: A dedicated interaction device

Previous experience with work on the ACT which was a cadence trainer for cycling  could be leveraged to make more effective display for the distance information or the “rider finder” utilizing a bluetooth connection to the GhostRide app. To determine exactly the form this will take the concept and features of the app need to be more thoroughly finalized. The workflow needs to be thought about because there is a fair number of safety concerns.

When

Timeline:

 

Budget:

Promotional Plan

Head over to this link to see the breakdown of the promotional plan for the project. Also note that its included in the GanttChart for the project significantly before the release date.

 

Annotated Bibliography 

Check out research on similar projects and inspiration for GhostRide.