Back in 2014, the Vanhawks Valour smart bicycle trail-blazed its way to over $800,000 in Kickstarter crowdfunding. But then again, who needs an entire bike to be ‘intelligent’, when just a pair of pedals can fulfill the smartness quotient? Well, the above-pictured Connected Cycle belongs to this exclusive category, with the detachable pedal boasting of built-in motion sensors, GPS and even fitness tracking technology.

Showcased at CES 2015, the hi-tech contraption has the ability to remotely notify the user, if the bike had been displaced from its original location. This nifty feature can potentially counteract the rising theft cases of bikes, especially in urban areas with dedicated cyclist zones. In fact, the motional value of the bike (when the thief is presumably riding it) triggers the GPS and GPRS chips embedded inside the smart pedal device, thus leading to a real-time tracking scope from your smartphone.

This groovy aspect is accompanied by the WiFi connectivity of the pedal that can be used to communicate to a smartphone app. This software in turn gauges various parameters like speed, destination, gradient of riding, and the amount of calories burnt – and all of the collected data is made accessible from the app’s interface. But the best practical part is – the Connected Cycle pedal can be easily installed to an existing bike, without the requirement of any complex mechanical aid.

Finally, as if these host of attributes were not enough, the Connected Cycle has self-recharging capacity, with the power being drawn from the kinetic energy of pedaling. In other words, the rider powers the smart gizmo, which in turn tracks the rider in a symbiotic cycle. But unfortunately, the start-up has still not divulged any info about the cloud-based pedal’s cost – with expected availability to commence from the middle of 2015.

Source: ConnectedCycle