Navigating in a car is easy; there are multiple options. You can use your car’s GPS system, or you can just get a smartphone holder for your vehicle and navigate with google maps. If you are on a bike, the situation is much different. You can still choose to mount a navigation device on the handlebars, but anyone can tell it is not the safest or the friendliest idea.
An Atlanta-based biker, Steven Friedlander came up with a very neat solution of motorcycle gloves that will guide you on your way. At Lab Brother LLC, Steven created the TurnPoint Smart Glove system for bike navigation. The right glove of the pair is typical like any other, while the left one features a conductive thread and a pocket. A removable Bluetooth Low Energy device goes into the pocket and communicates with the map on your smartphone. You obviously still have to carry your smartphone, but you don’t need to look at it. Just stuff it in your pocket or down your bag.
The glove system uses LEDs on the Bluetooth device to show the distance from a turn in half mile increments and prompts the user when to turn and in what direction. If you manually want to see how far away the turn is, you can press the thumb and forefinger together to activate the LED display of the device. At the moment, the touch of thumb and forefinger will only light up the display, but in the future, it may include features like a compass and battery level display or maybe switching songs on your phone.
The device is rechargeable, and a single charge of the battery will last you a good 8 hours.
Sadly the app is only available for iOS, but an Android version is planned. The TurnPoint system will retail for $249, but you can get an early bird pair at 40% off for $149. You will not get your gloves delivered any sooner than May this year.
Watch the TurnPoint system in action:
