A Motorcycle Helmet With A Heads-Up Display POPULAR SCIENCE - NEW TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE NEWS, THE FUTURE NOW | WED, JUN 19


This is awesome! Hope to see these here adn more affordable in the yeares to come.

ok, that has potential. I suspect in time it will be inevitable.

No doubt, a very cool concept. Given current trends in technology, I expect we'll see these before too long.Good catch!

As an alternative (and something that MIGHT offer some upcoming developer flexibility), is Google Glass. Not sure how easily it will fit in full face helmet, but a little tweaking to the padding might work. See the screen shots below, notably the one with the GPS overlay.

That raises some very interesting possibilities.

Yeah interesting possibilities of new and exciting ways to crash. Keith code and others talk about having a limited amount of attention to "spend" when riding. This would be a high cost item.

I would agree with that. As much as I am for innovation, simplifying - on a bike they are exponentially increased. That being said, presumably even with GPS, radios, even comm. sets on helmets can present distractions whose waters are navigated carefully (and hopefully) as the skill and experience of the rider increases.

There are some folks however whom even a rear-view or side mirrors will provide enough distraction to wreck, so despite this it's probably mostly relative to the individual. More specifically their desire to know when/if to use devices that could provide distractions, any ability to refrain or ignore them and use them in safe spots (stretches, pulled over, etc.)

Traditional GPS units and mobile devices are more of a distraction vis a vis to Google Glass. Case and point - Google Glass images can be or are transparent - meaning you can see through them. The intensity of the image displayed will undoubtedly be adjustable as well, reducing the level of contrast against one's field of view. (It's worthwhile to note that these will have accompanying auditory instructions/uses as well, I believe.) When one has to return to the road, they only need to focus their attention to the object nearer the image.

Now when using a traditional GPS or mobile device, you have to glance down - taking your eyes further off the road and for a longer period of time. That conical field of vision we talked about at the resturant won't compensate for having to focus on an object 3 feet away for that split second your eyes are off the road. The distraction effect will be amplified much more so if you have to push a button or touch a screen. I.E. the more time you spend looking at your instruments and bike, the less you have to focus on what you're actually doing/driving. (One of the same reasons they developed HUD's for fighter planes... to present critical information to the pilot while minimizing their distraction/separation from their flight.)

So to me, I would see this as requiring some effort to get used to - but I feel substantially safer just thinking about glancing at something like a small transparent HUD in my vision as opposed to taking my eyes off the road to glance at my iPhone to see information. The time, separation and level of effort for focus is just that much greater for traditional GPS.

I could maybe even see something like Google Glass improving safety for those who have longer focus and reaction times too or as the years creep up and who still need to use a nav. Presumably other information could be customized and presented on voice demand too - weather, conditions ahead, speed, remaining fuel and tire pressure will undoubtedly sneak in there as systems are linked. (I would bet BMW will tackle that one first, lol!)

EDIT: Yermo, when are you going to build in Spell Check... save a dude!

Gabe, filed feature request for it in the bug tracker so I won't forget. Thanks.

And here it is! From now until July 12th - ladies and gents, I give you the LiveMap Bike Helmet! It slices, it dices, it brews coffee and cooks toast and this magic Unicorn of a motorcycle helmet can be yours for only... wait for it... $1,500 smackers!

(And anyone who pays $1,500 for a helmet ought to get smacked 1500 times IMO... just imagine dropping that on the ground by accident.)

I think having this technology in a helmet, need to be a removal, detachable liner type technology.

If helmet are 3grand, and only have a shelf life of 5 years or less, or 1 parking lot drop, I can see very little adoption. It needs to be swappable between helmets of the same brand.

Yun Lung Yang very good point.

I think this is probably where the technology is going, though it will take a while to nail down what the best avenue of application is.

I believe Yun's point may express the most practical concern. Helmets have a fixed shelf life.

So really, what needs to be done is that the technology needs to be made portable from helmet to helmet to make it truly practical/worth considering.  But having said that, it does look promising.

I think it makes sense to look at it in the same context as inter-bike communication, such as with the SENA or Scala systems. A lot of the "prep" work has been done by these companies to sort out helmet portability, placement, usability, etc and seem to be a natural consolidation point. Just as in cars it becomes an integrated component of the infotainment system. Motorcycles place demands on the rider though that cars simply don't, both physical and cognitive, that have me concerned about this type of technology in actual use. Real-life is not like the movies, and systems such as this can seem absolutely fantastic on paper and in prototype but then have disastrous consequences in production.

We're losing the battle for cars - no more manual transmission followed in short order by highly automated driving systems, with legislation following quickly behind mandating these systems. The generally accepted purpose is safety but I think the real reason for acceptance is laziness and apathy, further facilitated by the rapid decline in driver skill brought about by atrocious driver education. 

The robots aren't taking over, we're giving it to them. I'd like to think motorcycling is our last best stand against it.

Well said.

I'm of 2 minds of the philosophical and shakespearian aspects of hamlet-on-a-motorcycle. On the one hand, I see the validity of remaining physically engaged. On the other I still can't justify looking down at a map in a map bag or GPS as less of a distraction than something in my near field of vision. I still need a way to get to my destination without having to stop every 20 miles, look up directions, miss my turn, all the while having no means to assist navigation. (The last thing I'll be thinking about while getting more and more lost is "but I'm personally winning the technological war and maintaining my hummanity!")



Technology and progress are inevitable to some degree - even when attempting to escape it on a motorcycle. For example - I'm a HUGE fan of ABS brakes, but many motorcyclists still scoff at the idea. Full-face helmets are often claimed to limit visibility (and they do a smidge), but that's a poor excuse when you're sucking pavement for not wanting to turn your head a tiny bit more. Helmet-to-Helmet and bike-to-bike intercoms could easily be a distraction - or a beneficial method to warn your fellow riders in a faster way of a danger, course correction or other important emergency.



The pros and cons that define the balance keep shifting towards somewhere between convenience and practicality, and from what I've seen in my limited exposure to motorcycling - cautious practicality. 30 years ago we thought the idea of cell phones absurd. 80 years ago telephones. Yet we've managed to merge both into tools to allow us to communicate, (particularly in emergencies), navigate, look up resources and assist us in many other ways. So while we're more distracted, have more convenience - we spend less time, frustration and effort hiking for assistance for a flat tire, gas, mechanic, searching for a phone, etc. To me that's just being smart - having the right tools for the right job, but also knowing how to use them.



I imagine google glasses and similar tools like HUD's for motorcyclists will remain minimal in function, glam and overload in comparison to regular vehicles. But the days of walking off a curb or running into a telephone pole while texting are limited - likely not because of the removal of technology but because we use it as a foundation for everyday life, much like we've come to use cell phones, watches, computers, umbrellas, shoes, water-repellant clothing, etc.



"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them."

- Alfred North Whitehead



Personally I would imagine the battle to not be against technology per say - but simply knowing when it's time to unplug now and then.

GabeI doubt that many of us in this forum are against technology, LOL you should see what we do for a living It's more of a technology in context question, and the balance of solving problems for the sake of solving them versus understanding that living with a particular problem, or only mitigating it to a degree, may in fact have substantial positive benefits. 

Hmmm... cup holder or heads-up display, decisions decisions.