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Tracking and Recording Device

I was wondering if you guys would invest in a bike tracking and a recording device for your children's' bikes? So that when they go on rides you can see where they are and you have a recording to see what happened. Or to also put the recording device on your bike so that you can record your ride together.

Im working on a product and just want to know families is a market we should look into!

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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6 comments

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
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Garmins already livetrack and record GPS data. 

 

What would you be offering on top of that? Live video feed?

 

If you were doing live video feed then that could be something, although you'd have to justify the cost as Youtube and Periscope allow you to post live video feed for free. Basically if I want to be able to watch my kid ride around the city, live, on my mobile phone, wherever I am - I can do that now, without a subscription or any hassle. Just download an app on my phone and on my kid's phone. 

Can you beat a free app? That's the question. Or are you going to play on the ignorance of the market who aren't aware of free options and pretend you're the main player here? That can work, you can pretty much trick people into paying for a product they can get elsewhere for free.

 

There's just no information here to know what exactly it is you're offering, at what price point and how discreet it is.

 

Here's what I would buy - a GoPro session sized camera, that recorded at 1440 x 60 FPS and had a removable battery, was waterproof, and had a free app to livetrack and post live streamed video to either Periscope, Youtube Live or less attractively - to their own custom app which you've created. That said.. the network still isn't really ready for this sort of data transfer in real time. You'll get cut-outs on the stream and the stream quality will be crap.

 

HTC RE can broadcast and there are some other options too, but they aren't spectacular yet. The market is just sort of teetering along at the moment waiting for it to happen. GoPro are experimenting but nothing market ready yet.

 

Take a read of this:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/01/understanding-streaming-options.html

 

That said, if you're not thinking about video streaming and just recording some data, then forget it. Everything does that already. Phones, head units, even cameras record GPS data as they go along.

 

You don't have the investment to make the form factor light and beautiful either. It'll be clunky and cheap looking (you'll think it's the dog's nads, as it's your hard work, but the rest of us will go.. no thanks mate, that's pants).

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. . replied to tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
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unconstituted wrote:

Just download an app on my phone and on my kid's phone.

Any recommendations? 

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tritecommentbot replied to . . | 7 years ago
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. . wrote:

unconstituted wrote:

Just download an app on my phone and on my kid's phone.

Any recommendations? 

 

Yep, Periscope is the easiest. Virtually no setup at all. Download app and press broadcast. Done.

 

Any phone with a camera will do and a cheap mount from eBay/Amazon is as good as any to mount on his chest. 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mount-Action-Smartphone-Smartphone-Strongest/dp...

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rjfrussell | 7 years ago
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Without wanting to sound discouraging, I have to agree-  what is your USP?  If your device is just a "me too", you aren't going to beat the big boys.  Also, by the time kids are riding sufficient distances to make this worthwhile, they won't want "kids' stuff" in any event.

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pruaga | 7 years ago
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Second what Mr Trilby says.  A Garmin can already do everything you suggest, either analysis after the ride (how far/fast etc) or when paired with a mobile phone you can use the livetrack to see where someone is in (nearly) real time.

Even without buying a dedicated GPS head unit there are already a lot of mobile apps that do just what you are suggesting.

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mrtrilby | 7 years ago
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No interest at all - my 12 year old is now starting to go out on indepedent rides. If I want to "see what happened", her Garmin provides a tonne of data that we can analyse to death together using any of the many existing tools - Strava, TrainingPeaks etc. If I want to track where she is, she takes a phone. I personally have no interest in yet another device for her to lose, forget to charge, or that incurs a data subscription.

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