Light reveals a punctured tire

While going to places, I have seen many people stopping their vehicle along the roadside and getting upset due to an oversight by the driver, for his negligence of checking the air pressure in the tires. Their troubles could have be easily rectified if the driver know their vehicle’s tires were over-inflated or under-inflated due to slowly leaking air or prolonged usage.

Under normal conditions, the driver checks the tire’s air pressure through visual (bulging of side walls of the tire), through instruments (pressure gauge) or by pressing against the wheel to see the extent of the dent. This might be perceived by the driver’s host as uncool, a waste of time or simply overprotective mentality of the driver.

To prevent all of that, we need a monitoring system within the car that is able to detect the tires are deflating and needs to be pumped-up as soon as possible. I propose a system that consist of

• A laser or light emitting diode per tire (light source)
• Minimum of 3 light-detecting resistors (LDR) or light sensors per tire (light receptors)
• Micro-controller (signal interpreters)

A brightly coloured laser would be the best light source as we want the light receptors to be able to see the light regardless of minor weather conditions. The light source needs to be positions as close as possible to the top of the vehicle frame to prevent water from touching the system and corrosion from occurring. This system is easy and has a low cost maintenance since laser could be purchased from any store selling pointers, LDRs / light sensor from any DIY stores and the micro-controller never get spoiled since it is far away from any contact from the outside world.

Please enjoy this short animation which helps illustrate the workings of the proposed system:

Some of the shortfalls of this design would be

1. When the vehicle is moving into flood-zones the
1. Light would not be accurately reflected in the light receptors
2. Water or moisture would spoil the inner-workings of the system
2. Environmental factors
1. Dirt or mud would block the mirror
2. Moisture would fog-up the mirror or destroy the silver-lining which would prevent accurate reflection of laser beam in the light receptors
3. Positioning of laser needs to be very precise and the alignment need to be check constantly to prevent misinterpretation of results
4. Constant readjustment of the light source to accommodate unintended bulging of tire due to rocky terrain, road bumps or overloading the vehicle (e.g. Passenger weight above the population’s average  weight or having brought a lot of heavy items from a shopping trip)