I am currently developing Smart Shade, a Shade Intelligence Engine and API designed to help applications understand sunlight and shade exposure along outdoor routes.
Given Strava's focus on running, cycling and outdoor activities, I wanted to explore whether shade exposure could become another useful dimension of the athlete experience.
Today, athletes often consider distance, elevation, terrain and estimated duration when choosing routes or planning activities. But in hot and sunny environments, how much of a route is exposed to direct sunlight versus shade could also influence their experience.
Imagine applications built around Strava activities being able to:
-
Compare routes by shade exposure: Help runners and cyclists identify routes with greater shade coverage.
-
Understand activity exposure: Provide insights into how much of an outdoor activity takes place under direct sunlight versus shade.
-
Choose better departure times: Compare expected shade conditions at different times of the day.
-
Enrich activity insights: Introduce environmental context alongside existing activity metrics such as distance, elevation and duration.
How would Smart Shade fit in?
Smart Shade is designed as an independent intelligence layer, not another navigation or fitness application.
A platform or developer provides route or location information through a supported API format. Smart Shade processes the information and returns structured shade intelligence that can be used to build additional features and experiences.
The integrating platform decides how to present and use the returned data. There is no need to develop the underlying shade intelligence from scratch.
I would love to hear from the Strava developer community:
-
Would shade exposure be a valuable additional insight for runners and cyclists within the Strava ecosystem?
-
Can you envision third-party applications using this type of environmental intelligence to enhance the experience of Strava athletes?
-
From a developer perspective, what would be the best way to explore this kind of integration while working within Strava's API capabilities and guidelines?
I would like to understand whether this is something that developers and athletes would find useful, and whether there are opportunities to build around it.