Know anyone that has ever wished, "I wish my snowmobile/motorcycle could have told me it was being stolen." Well, that could actually happen in the future.
Check out the motorhead geek-worthy coolness of Twine--a small box filled with sensors that could have your motorcycle, snowmobile and more talking to you and your friends via text, email or twitter on command.
We spotted this little bar-of-soap-like device on Fast Company's Co.Design page and immediately wondered how it could make our snowmobiles and motorcycles faster. It turns out it can't. But it could potentially keep them in our possession longer, make their recovery in the case of a theft more likely and create intense jealousy in your group of riding friends.
So what is Twine? Well, it's a little box filled with sensors that is connected to the internet via wifi. Temperature sensors, motion sensors, who-knows-what-kind-of-sensors are or can be included. Developers say it may come with about 13 different sensors that detect all sorts of external forces. Plus you can add external sensors.
How can this help your bike or sled? Well, put it into a hypothetical situation and see what's possible.
If you have Twine zip-tied to your machine or toy (bike, sled, truck, trailer, whatever) at home in storage and it's connected to your home internet access, you can program it via a simple web interface to send you messages. They say it's as easy as saying, "If Twine moves, send me a text message." So, if your snowmobile or motorcycle moves while you're at work or on vacation, you'll get a text, tweet or email (depending on how you set it up). If your motorcycle or snowmobile isn't supposed to be moving, you can call in the troops to investigate. It has the potential to give you real-time shenanigan warning.
Pretty cool, eh? But once you start thinking about having your machines and toys talk to you, the potential explodes.
I wonder if you can sync it with your smart phone for mobile internet access and have it send your friends a message when you hit a certain speed, altitude or gps coordinate?