Meerkat is a bright, colorful ABS beacon kinda thang that has the height, sex and age of the owner of a bicycle molded onto it. In transit, it fits as a mudguard to the cycle; and when parked, it can be removed (lifted up-over the seat) to fit as an anti-theft with the bike lock. Till this bit the concept is fine; the flipside kicks in on two counts: it relies heavily on a Good Samaritan to notice the theft and report it and what do you do with the mudguard when someone else uses the bike or you grow up!

If the Samaritan does take the trouble of capturing a pic of the thief (doubtful), then it can be used by the police and as Simpon puts it, “the data will then be filtered and directly uploaded and GPS stamped to a specialized, police monitored Google map which can be used as an evidence gathering system.”

Doubtful! Doubtful! Doubtful!

Designer: Simon Enever