Ethan Siegel Weekend Diversion: Be Safe, Be Free! has this story on his Starts With a Bang blog. An air bag safety helmet. You just strap it around your neck and when you have an accident it inflates around your head. It meets the EU requirements for a safety helmet. Right now it costs about $600 US, but hopefully the price will come down.



I am particularly interested because I took up bicycle riding a couple of months ago and the helmet really isn't that much fun.

Bill Gill

that invention reminded me of some from the past


it looks like alot of the people in the video could have
benefited from the use of the air bag helmet

How safe would such a helmet be?

Presumably an impact is needed to inflate it. If, for example, you skidded on a patch of ice and came off your bike, the first impact might well be your head hitting the road, with your helmet still round your neck.

The helmet has motion sensors/accelerometers in it. There is a special algorithm that watches for "unusual" motions and triggers the gas to fill the bag when it detects crash type motions. Apparently that was where a lot of the development effort went, figuring out what was a normal motion and what was a crash/fall motion.

Bill Gill

I dont suppose that a case of the hickups or a bad cough would cause it to inflate would it?

I think it would be better if it used a range finder to determine head movement.
part of the device would attach to the handlebars probably.

it would have to deactivate when the bike was stopped.

but this could activate the inflation device if you just fell off while riding on ice.

of course it would also need a range sensor to detect the distance to the ground also.

but it could be done.

this is not a bad idea , in fact its a great begining of some really great ideas.

motorcyclist , could use a type of body inflation device.

children's car seats !!!

car seats that envelope a child in the event of an accident.

Good points. Hopefully the one about the hiccups or coughs is taken care of. Apparently they went to great lengths to determine what are "normal" movements, so I hope they caught those. One of the things that impressed me is that it has been approved by the EU for bicyclists. I understand they are really picky about safety.

When they get this out and about in the world there are probably a lot of places where something similar could be put in place to replace bulky or ineffective safety devices.

Bill Gill

This seems to be a brilliant idea, and anything is better than the bulky horrors we have to wear at the moment. However I am finding difficulty in imagining how the switch-on mechanism would turn on safely and in time to protect a cyclist who had, for example, been thrown off a bike, or even worse, ended up entangled in a bike's wheels or chain. There doesn't seem to be enough time for a response to the collision, and I also agree with paul that there would have to be a mechanism to allow for the sudden stopping of a bike which was not involved in an accident.

Unfortunately the 'helmet' leaves the face unprotected due to the lack of a face plate. Faces too can be smashed up in a bike accident.

However as you point out Bill G, the EU, who are strict about such things, has supported this idea. I hope it is a success.




PS. I wonder how the perky pony tail hairstyle will look after an encounter with the inflated air-bag?

Possibly better than it would look after an incounter with the road.