“Ava, the eBike” is an augmented eBike that aims to support the experiential aspects of cycling. If sensing a leaning-forward action when aiming to speed up, the engine kicks in and accelerates the cyclist, supported by a joyful sound similar to sports cars when accelerating. Through this work, we aim to highlight the potential of interactive technology to not only support instrumental, but also experiential aspects of exertion activities. In particular, we see a unique opportunity to experience our bodies as play through actuation technologies, such as afforded by eBikes. As such, eBikes are for us readily-available exoskeletons for the masses.
See also our other eBike work: Ari, the green-light eBike and Ena, the EEG-eBike.
Publications
Andres, J., de Hoog, J., von Känel, J., Berk, J., Le, B., Wang, X., Mueller, F. Exploring Human – eBike Interaction to Support Rider Autonomy. CHI PLAY 2016. Work in Progress. ACM. 85-92.
Mueller, F., Byrne, R., Andres, J., Patibanda, R. Experiencing the Body as Play. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI 2018. Long paper. ACM. Talk video. BEST PAPER AWARD (top 1%).
Acknowledgements
We thank our contributors from IBM Research and the University of Melbourne.