No Hands, No Helmet - Mullah Riding Motorcycle

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No Hands, No Helmet - Mullah Riding Motorcycle

Too Cool For (Bike) Helmet Head? Here"s One Swedish Solution

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No more helmet hair: Hövding’s “invisible” helmet is an airbag tucked away in a collar that gets fastened around a cyclist’s neck. It’s aimed at urban cyclists and priced at $ 535.

Courtesy of Hövding

No more helmet hair: Hövding’s “invisible” helmet is an airbag tucked away in a collar that gets fastened around a cyclist’s neck. It’s aimed at urban cyclists and priced at $ 535.

Courtesy of Hövding

Hey there, hipster. No bike helmet, huh? Well, we all have our excuses. There are the vanity-driven ones that — let’s be honest — explain why the majority of our brain cages sit collecting dust in the dark corners of the garage. Squashed hair, unflattering chinstraps, general discomfort, etc.

Then there are the more nuanced arguments tied to piles of conflicting data about how effective helmets actually are (including one small, if oft-cited study suggesting that drivers tend to pass helmeted riders at closer distances than their non-helmeted counterparts).

But what if there were a helmet that answered both categories of complaint? One that respected your brain and your coiffure?

Enter, Hövding, the “invisible” helmet, brainchild of Swedish design duo Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin.

“Vanity might sound a bit stupid to talk about,” Alstin says, “but if that is the cause of people not protecting their heads in traffic, it is a real issue that you need to address.”

And, thus, what started out as a thesis project is now something that could revolutionize biking safety.

So how does it work? In a nutshell, it’s not a shell for your nut. It’s an airbag — one that’s tucked away in a collar that cyclists fastened around their neck. When the collar’s internal sensors detect a specific combination of jerks and jags signifying “ACCIDENT HAPPENING,” the airbag deploys, sending out a head-hugging, air-cushion hood in a tenth of a second.

Alstin explains: “We were aiming to do a product that was as safe as conventional helmets. But (helmets) are not really as safe as people think they are. But that has not been something that you want to talk about because there was no alternative before. Using the airbag technology we were actually able to set a completely new standard for safety in the bike helmet industry.”

Sweden has one of the highest percentages of people who use bikes as their primary mode of transportation, but only about 20 percent of adult Swedes wear helmets. Furthermore, bicyclists represented nearly 9 percent of all traffic fatalities in Sweden in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics were available. The comparable figure in the U.S. is 1.8 percent for that year.

In tests by a Swedish insurance company, Hövding was shown to be at least three times better at absorbing shock than conventional helmets (at 15 mph — this is a product aimed at urban cyclists). Hövding’s weakest point may be that it can’t protect riders from “direct hits” like overhanging branches and street signs, an issue that hasn’t prevented the company from winning Europe’s CE conformity label.

That said, Hövding has yet to be approved for sale in the U.S., and some experts are skeptical it will be able to muster a similar thumbs-up from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. But with interest mounting, Alstin says she and her colleagues are doing their best to get to the U.S. as soon as possible.

Alas, the $ 535 price tag is likely to provide a new excuse for anyone who bikes as a cost-cutting measure.

And what about cyclists in, say, Florida, where a thick collar might be slightly less appealing than in chilly Scandinavia where everyone already wears scarves that appear to hold their heads in place?

“For really hot countries, we’re thinking about developing a shell that would have a cooling system inside,” Alstin says. Innovate on.

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Too Cool For (Bike) Helmet Head? Here"s One Swedish Solution

Breaking: NASA Aborts Spacewalk Due To Water In Astronaut"s Helmet

Updating live.

By Dan Nosowitz Posted 07.16.2013 at 9:25 am

Live streaming by Ustream

According to the AP’s Twitter feed, NASA has aborted a routine removal and replacement (R&R) spacewalk due to a “water leak in astronaut’s’ [sic] helmet.” The two astronauts on the spacewalk are Chris Cassidy from NASA and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano. Update from NASA:

The spacewalk, the second in a week, had the mission of inspecting and installing a few cables, like an ethernet link between the U.S.’s section of the International Space Station and the future site of the Russian module, which will hopefully launch sometime next year. Lots more info on that here.

We’re watching live on UStream, embedded above. Cassidy just noted to NASA ground control that Luca “looks miserable, but is okay.” The Canadian Space Agency compared the leak to going snorkeling or diving with a mask full of water–unpleasant, but at least when you’re under water you know there’s breathable air nearby.

Looks like things are winding down. Both astronauts are safe. The spacewalk mission actually finished the first part of the job, connecting jumper cables and data/power connections, but when beginning the next task, Luca Parmitano noticed water filling up in his helmet. Ground control called the two back inside since the water leak appeared to be increasing without an obvious cause or solution. NASA noted on the livestream that neither astronaut was in serious danger, but we’re most impressed at how calm everyone remained during this whole thing, which would reduce most of us terrestrial Earthlings to tears and soiled spacesuits.

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Breaking: NASA Aborts Spacewalk Due To Water In Astronaut"s Helmet

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