I've had two serious motorcycle incidents where a helmet protected me.<p>One: I fell off at slow speeds going round a corner, there was oil on the road, no ones fault, banged my head quite hard but was otherwise fine.<p>Two: On a motorway at ~65MPH a fucking prick threw a coke can out of his car which quickly decelerated and hit my visor. The visor cracked but maintained it's integrity and saved at least my nose and at most my life.<p>Please wear a full helmet, there are a lot of pricks in the world.<p>PS: I'm swearing in this post so you get the idea that 15 years later I still get really angry at this idiot.
I like it but I would feel uneasy knowing that it is not just a stupid foam helmet but an airbag and a bunch of gyros. Just reminding that the more complex the system is the more places something can go wrong.
Has to be very hard to separate signal from noise on the deployment of the air bag. Those dummies were in very controlled environments and the helmet deployed at very low rates of acceleration change. In the hit from behind demonstration, you can see the rider's head experienced only around 1g of acceleration and little jerk.<p>It would get annoying as hell when this thing senses similar accelerations from non-car-hitting-you movements like bending over to roll up a pant leg or changing positions. Prankster friends would have a heyday too.<p>Dainese has an has an impressive motorcycle airbag suit - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9Vlt5tGwY" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo9Vlt5tGwY</a><p>tl;dr - That thing would go off all that time if they made it sensitive enough to work.
I'm always fascinated by people's opinions about helmets. In New Zealand, where I'm from, helmets are required by law, and in my experience everybody wears helmets while cycling - it's just an accepted part of riding a bike there. Here in Europe, though, people ride with or without them and it's quite odd. Sure, they look cool without a helmet, but I just can't help but cringe when I imagine them having a nasty spill.<p>The one thing I'd disagree with about this helmet is its invisibility - it doesn't encourage other people to wear one. I don't know whether that's marketing advice or safety advice, but having everybody wear visible helmets sets a strong example.
Tested at 20km/h; IIRC that's how normal bike helmets are tested too.<p>My problem is, I'd bet that crashes causing serious harm happen way faster than that: 20km/h is the average speed of a champion marathon runner, and no one runs with an helmet. My 2nd guess as to why is that if helmets were effective when it matters, at higher speeds, they would look very similar to a motorcycle helmet, and be impractical.<p>So, facing the choice between something that does its job, and something ineffective but slightly less impractical, lawmakers try to make the latter mandatory. It reminds me of the TSA "security" policies...
I wonder if the designers were influenced by the inflatable collar that Y.T. wore in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. I think I'll wait for a suit that inflates like the airbags used by the Mars Pathfinder.
I'm curious how noisy it is. It has to inflate <i>fast</i>, so it's rather "bang" than "pffft". I wonder about the implications, given that it's so close to your ears.
It's actually interesting. If it really works, we could see it evolve to vest, or pants or anything that protect the crucial area of the body other than the head.
All the tests show low speed impacts/crashes, I'm curious as to how well it would work in a high speed impact where your head hits the ground going forward, is it attached firmly enough to stay in place?<p>Also, how does it know when to inflate? Can it be repacked?<p>It looks interesting, but I'll stick with my regular helmet for now, even if it isn't stylish.
Never going to wear that heavy collar while cycling. Bike helmets are vented, cool. That collar has to be stifling.<p>And all in the interest of fashion? Ok, then I am Definitely not the target demographic. However, that model wearing that thing that looks like a cervical collar doesn't look very fashionable in my ignorant opinion.
reminded. 20+ years ago my friend biker explained to me the advantages of a full-head-face helmet for a biker - it makes for greater chances that your head/face would be relatively intact, even when severed, so they would be able to put it into the coffin with your body and have an "open coffin" ceremony
Reminds me of this I saw on a documentary when I was a kid: airbag-based ballistic protection: <a href="http://ip.com/patent/US6412391" rel="nofollow">http://ip.com/patent/US6412391</a>