Your Boring Bike Helmet Is About to Get a Big Tech Upgrade
A new Kickstarter project hopes cyclists can say bye bye to blindspots.
By Jason Fell •
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Sure, bike helmets help protect your noggin. But in today's world of lightning-fast tech advancements, why is this staple of the modern cyclist still so boring and disconnected?
A Brooklyn, N.Y.-based startup is looking to change that. Enter Brooklyness Inc., which has created the "Classon Helmet," which aims to make the biking experience a lot smarter.
Co-founded by Manuel Saez and Traci Pollard, the Classon recently launched on Kickstarter. At its core, the helmet "allows you to communicate your intentions to those around you without even thinking about it," the Kickstarter page points out.
The helmet comes with cameras in the front and rear to detect motion around the wearer. Say a car is approaching from behind, the Classon cameras will see it, an algorithm will interpret it, and then an adjustable light under the helmet's visor blinks in the wearer's peripheral vision, alerting them to the danger. Bye-bye blindspots. The cameras can even record video of the rider's journey.
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Built-in gesture sensors can also read the wearer's movements. When a person makes a turning signal with their arm, a light is automatically triggered on the helmet, which is pretty handy for night biking. And as the wearer reduces speed, a red brake light illuminates on the back of the helmet.
When paired with the app, a rider can even get turn-by-turn navigational directions, delivered via the lights under the visor, telling you whether to turn right or left, or go straight.
What can't this thing do? Here's a look at the promo video:
Brooklyness isn't the only company that's trying to re-imagine helmet tech. The Skully AR-1, is a helmet that leverages augmented reality to put real-time video of what's happening behind and around the wearer on a transparent screen inside the visor. Pretty neat, right?
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The Classon Kickstarter campaign is on for the next 20 days or so. The company says it will eventually sell at retail for $299.
