The Tire Gauge was developed to find a reliable and cost effective method to measure the wear of tire treads. Based on cheap prototyping methods, a few ideas were set into a testing phase: The first was optical deep sensing, i.e. the use of devices similar to kinect, which visualize and measure based on visual perspectives. The second was infrared fingerprint. Both proved to be unreliable and unrealistic in scope as they were neither cost effective or compact.

Finally a custom sensor was created, based on physical contact of the tire on micro lineal displacement sensors. This sensor has passed through the alpha stage as the assumptions were validated by initial testing and it has proven to be more precise than hoped for.

The Tire Gauge was conceived as a passive method to test for tire safety. It is a completely new invention within the field of automobile sensor and safety measures. As a tire rolls across a speed bump the sensors measure the distance between treads and send that data to a ticketing system that lets the driver know the condition of the tire and prompts them to change it when necessary.

The innovation here is baed on sensors commonly used in aircrafts to control wing with micro precision, for measuring the death of tire threads. While previous methods rely on databases and knowledge of the make and model of each tire, The Tire Gauge is a custom sensor that can be scaled to variable sizes. The Alpha prototype was developed by a team of two using vector works, eagle circuits, modified linear displacement sensors, Arduino, RaspberryPi and Node.

Because the custom sensor is based on physical contact it is less prone to errors as it is not effected by ambient conditions such as light, weather, time of day, noise, etc. Initial testing has been able to read tire treads more accurately than expected for a variety of makes and models. Currently The Tire Gauge sensors are in beta stage.

Currently, no further development is planned with Jorge, Lead Designer or Mauricio, Engineer; however The Tire Gauge proves to provide a clear competitive advantage as it delivers an unprecedented picture of the tire market. The current iteration of the sensor is precise and mobile and lets you log a huge amount of cars. We are the only company with real data about the state of tires and real-time consumer behavior.