Pedal sans fear of losing track

Chennai: For those who love cycling long distances and  through unknown territories, but fear getting lost, a group of young software professionals from Chennai has come to their aid. They have designed a navigation device that assures safer and hassle-free cycling. The best part is you don’t need to turn to a GPS tracker on your smartphone to know the routes. The techies claim  this is a first of its kind navigation device in the world.

Hammerhead One, the device, is mounted on your bicycle and can be paired with your iPhone or Android’s GPS using Bluetooth technology. The LEDs in the device guides bikers using light signals and the Hammerhead One app, which is also newly developed by young Chennai turks, provide best possible bike routes. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, the five-member team headed by Mr Raveen Bheemsingh, co-founder and software head of Hammerhead, said: “The product is initially conceptualised in United States by Hammerhead CEO Piet Morgan, who is a hardcore cyclist, and currently being manufactured in China for pre-orders. The design and software development part was done by our Indian team. We have successfully tested the device in US, UK and in the crowded city streets of Chennai and Bengaluru”.

“I worked in several software companies across the globe for a decade and always cherished the dream of setting-up an own company and develop a new product. I meet Piet Morgan, who was recruiting a software engineer to make Hammerhead a reality, through a hacker community. This is how it all began. It took us 18 months to develop the product. As of now, we have got pre-orders from cyclists from 63 countries, majority of who are from US, UK and rest of European countries”, Mr Bheemsingh said.

On the device’s distinctive features, Mr Bheemsingh said there is no parallel to Hammerhead currently in the market. Just like the traffic signals, for which people respond instinctively, the Hammerhead light signal patterns are also designed such that they are user-friendly.The device costs about '6,000”, he said and thanked his team mates Devarajan Narayanan, Sunil Vignesh, M.G. Bharath and Shashank Tomar for their efforts. He said Hammerhead is being marketed in western countries, where cycling is the norm. In India, the trend is yet to catch-up. “We are shortly entering into a pact with Amazon, United States”.