Day after day, I am constantly getting sucked into the screen that is my PC. Countless hours go by without the realization of just how long I have been on it. Thinking back, I am not sure I have ever kept track of how many hours have gone by while I sit still and stare at it. A team of students from the University of Munich is trying to help people like me realize how much time is spent sitting still as opposed to time being physically active.
To keep track and balance between exercise and inactivity, Janko Hofmann and Fabian Pammer, invented the Personal Energy Orb (PEO). This device mounts onto your bike and reads from a revolution counter how far you have ridden. As the revolutions increase, so does its “energy level.” A green glow indicates it's fully charrrged. When you use your computer, you plug it in via USB and its energy level decreases to red, at which point, it totally decreases your mouse reaction speed to where you cannot use it properly. This indicates you must get back on your bike and ride.
The PEO has an Arduino board at its core. The bike mount consists of magnets that hold the device and trip a reed switch that tells Arduino to start counting wheel revolutions and charge the PEO. When connected to a PC, the orb is pinged by a Python based program that ask the Arduino to update the energy level and slightly decrease it constantly over time. The device is powered through USB when connected to a PC or with a 9V battery otherwise. When it is totally unplugged it turns off and saves your energy level to the Arduino’s non-volatile EEPROM, so none of your progress is lost.
An obvious drawback is that you may never plug it into your PC. But, the PEO must look pretty sweet riding around at night and then maybe a stern but caring partner or parent may help to assure it is being properly used. In any case, as it stands, the Personal Power Orb is not for sale. But the Arduino schematics and Python script are available on the projects page.
Perhaps making your own will be encouragement to use it.
Cabe