Bike helmets from different angle views

Foldable Bike Helmet Offers Recyclable Protection

By Mindy Weisberger, September 30, 2016

The EcoHelmet is a reusable, biodegradable and collapsible alternative to bulky helmets.

Urban bike-sharing programs are booming in many cities, but most casual riders don't usually tote around a helmet. This means when they rent a bike, they often ride helmet-free, which can be a risky move in places were roads aren't designed to safely accommodate both cars and cyclists.

However, a novel design could make an affordable, collapsible, biodegradable helmet available from a curbside vending machine.

The EcoHelmet, designed by Isis Shiffer, is made entirely of cardboard, folds up accordion-style to about the size of a banana and is compact enough to fit in a laptop bag. It unfolds to fit just like a traditional helmet, cushioning the wearer's head with honeycomb-patterned paper that absorbs and distributes impacts, protecting cyclists from injury.

On Sept. 29, the James Dyson Foundation selected the EcoHelmet — along with 19 other designs — for the Dyson Engineers Shortlist. These were chosen from among more than 1,000 submissions for the James Dyson Award 2016. The contest's International Winner will be selected from this list by inventor and designer Sir James Dyson on Oct. 27.

Grab and go

Shiffer, a designer and self-described ardent cyclist, told Live Science that during a year traveling abroad, she rented bicycles in many different cities and didn't always have a helmet with her. Riding without one could be a scary experience, she said. So Shiffer decided to create an affordable helmet that riders could pick up on the go, perhaps at the same station where they rent their bikes.

But traditional helmets are so bulky that a vending machine couldn't hold enough to keep up with daily demand, Shiffer explained. Her solution was to design a helmet that could be collapsed to take up a minimal amount of space but that would still provide the same protection as its bulkier cousin. 

EcoHelmets could be sold at vending machines at bike-share stations, making it easy for"For a helmet to work in a bike-share arena, it has to be able to fold up and be reused," Shiffer said.

For the helmet material, Shiffer turned to paper honeycomb, which is lightweight and recyclable, and absorbs impacts so well that it's used in supply packaging for helicopter drops in crisis zones. The next step involved turning the material into something that people would actually want to wear on their heads.

Shiffer admitted that she was partial to an early design that resembled a pineapple. But user reactions convinced her that a less whimsical helmet would likely appeal to a wider audience.

"It doesn't matter how functional it is," Shiffer said. "If you look like an idiot when you put it on your head, no one's going to wear it."

The EcoHelmet, which will be "one size fits most," is designed to be used several times and then recycled. Shiffer is currently preparing her design for U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission certification, with a goal of making the helmets available in vending machines at bike-share stations, where they could be sold for as little as $5, according to a statement on the James Dyson Award's EcoHelmet project website.

Augmented-Reality Helmet Could Give Cyclists Extra Eyes on the Road

By Edd Gent, Live Science Contributor | October 13, 2016 09:55am ET

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The Optic helmet uses augmented reality to give cyclists a 360-degree view of the road.

Credit: DCA

An augmented-reality helmet that gives cyclists a 360-degree view of the road could help prevent accidents, according to the device's designers.

Unlike cars, bicycles don’t come with rearview mirrors, which is why British product design firm DCA created the Optic helmet. The futuristic-looking headgear features front and rear cameras and a drop-down visor that can overlay live-streaming footage from the rear camera onto a rider's field of view.

The visor can also display proximity warnings, such as if a vehicle is overtaking the rider, and alert them to potential collisions by combining data from the cameras and ultrasonic sensors on the front and back of the helmet.

In addition, the Optic helmet can overlay GPS navigation information and journey statistics for riders who want to track their performance. The design is currently just a concept, but it won "Best of the Best" at the prestigious Red Dot Design Awards last month.

Richard Price, an industrial designer at DCA and the brains behind the project, said the helmet is aimed at combatting the roughly 20,000 cycling causalities that happen in the United Kingdom ever year, but he was also inspired by his own experiences as a cyclist. 

The futuristic-looking headgear features front and rear cameras and a drop-down visor that can overlay live-streaming footage from the rear camera onto a rider's field of view.

Credit: DCA/Red Dot Design Awards

"There have been times when I've been cycling to work where there's been some obstacle in the road or a junction and I've had to look over my shoulder while signaling," he told Live Science. "When you do that, often something suddenly appears in front of you and there's been quite a few times where I've had to slam on my breaks."

Because the helmet is still just a concept design, some of the nuts and bolts have yet to be decided, such as the exact method for projecting video onto the visor. However, Price said Google Glass has already shown this is feasible, as has a motorcycle helmet designed by a firm called Skully, which also projects a feed from a rearview camera onto a visor.

The Optic helmet will be able to connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth, to allow maps and routing information to be uploaded, but actual navigation will be carried out by the helmet using its onboard GPS unit, according to DCA. It can be controlled either by a touchpad next to the visor or by using gestures picked up by the front camera.

Users can customize what is shown on the visor to suit their needs and to ensure the display doesn’t become distracting, Price said. "They can decide for themselves what is unobtrusive and what they can deal with," he added.

The bulk of the electronics are in the top of the helmet, which, Price says, is the area statistically least likely to be impacted during a crash. The electronics package includes a memory card to record the video feeds in case the cyclist wants to review any incidents. These recordings can be accessed via Bluetooth, and Price added that they deliberately designed the helmet so that the rear camera is very obvious.

"We draw attention to it to show other road users that they are under surveillance," he said. "This links to the trend of people having recording equipment attached to their helmet, the idea being that people will drive more safely if they know they're being record."

Since the designs were made public, Price said the design firm has received plenty of positive feedback from cyclists and cycling gear companies. But, actually commercializing the device will require a considerable investment, so it's unclear when, or if, the helmet will be available to consumers.

Dan Salisbury, a senior industrial designer at DCA who helped Price with the helmet, said initial conversations with helmet companies have suggested an easier route to market might be to create a kit that can be retrofitted to existing helmets.

This could be a first step before integrating the technology into a full helmet and would also give users more choice by allowing them to simply attach the system to their favorite helmet.

"Some people might want a more aggressive sporty style or a more vintage one, that's why it might make more sense to create technology that doesn't come with a helmet, but fits to one you already have," Salisbury said.

Resume: My first article is written by Mindy Weiberger for Live Science magasine, on september the 30th. Isis Shiffer, the CEO of Spitfire Industries compagnie, present us the EcoHelmet. This was born when she was traveling a lot and riding bikes in every cities she went. She felt anxious when she was taking wrong side roads and not wearing a helmet. She thought it will be very nice if she could get one with the bike share and be more confortable on the road. So she decided to came up with this idea: folded, it is the size of a banana made with very cheap materials which is paper and unfold, it is a fully fonctionate helmet which protect your head like a regular one. I really like to see it on the street, making cities greener more ecological and safer for bikers.

My second article speaks about helmets too and it is written by Edd Gent, but augmented-reallity helmet which permits the cyclists to have a new vision of the road. It will permits the biker to estimate distances, to have an eye on his speed, and even on the clock. The helmet will be connected to an iOS and Android bluetooth smartphone. The dedicated application adjusts the camera’s position aiming the back of the head of the cyclist .

He may have 'eyes in the back’ as an image on the glass of the helmet visor.

This two kind of helmet are really important for safety in the street. Even if one is less technological then the other, both of them are a must if you are riding bikes. I really can’t wait to try one of them and finally see how it looks.