The invisible bike helmet!
 

I'm a helmet agnostic, but this helmet product is pretty ingriguing.

Very cool. I would like to see more once the data is more universally disseminated.

I'd want to be sure the response time is quick enough. Falls happen pretty fast... I wasn't quite sure from the video.

Id be totaly happy with one that looked like a baseball cap!

If it is true airbag technology, I can only imagine that impact times in a car are shorter than from a bike or segway, as the distance to have you hit the dashboard or windshield are shorter in a car than the distance for you to hit the ground from a bike or segway, and the speeds are greater, making the time shorter.

OF course, being hit by a fast moving car may take that difference away.

And, trigger function and location is a factor.

Still, I would think that speed is not as much a factor as the fact that in a car, each airbag is pretty much designed to react to one single movement. I have several in my car, front airbags for both driver and passenger, side bags, pillar bags and the like. All designed to pad the hard structure from the approaching soft person.

This bag is different. It is designed to inflate to a specific shape, cradle the head, and travel with the soft person toward the hard structure. I do not know how this will work, relative to the previous examples.

Also, the range of motion for the head position in the nano seconds after an impact are very different than the relative position for that persons head and the dashboard. If the person's head is far back, (as if they are looking up at the sky) will the bag inflate the same as if their head is down and right (as if they are looking at their right foot) ? I would like to know more.

Well, it's interesting. But not quite equivalent to a helmet in all situations.

Imagine if you glide under a big tree branch and your head hits the branch - or you just fall over the handlebars and your head hits the ground first.

However, in many situations it would be far better than "no helmet at all".

We should bear in mind that it is a bicycle helmet. In that country, bicycles are used for commuting purposes, and I am sure it is intended for the street, and not for mountain bikes, or even sidewalks.

Not too many trees are allowed to hang branches down into the street lanes, as they would surely hit vehicles enough that they pose small risk to the heads of bicyclists. (Hitting your head on a branch is a pretty exclusively segway application, because we are taller than bikers, and often on the sidewalks, where vehicles do not go)

I did not see all the tech data, but I thought I did see momentum changes and angles as part of the deployment factors. I suspect that people pretty rarely just fall over the handlebars of a segway and hit their head without an angle or momentum change. As a matter of fact, I cannot even imagine how one could fall over the handlebars at all, unless the segway wheels come to an abrupt stop, and that pretty much would be a momentum change of the first order...

On your last point, I do believe this would be better than no helmet at all in some situations, possibly many situations. It could even be worse than no helmet in some situations...

As a humorous sidebar... I recall many depictions of a rascal of a youth on a bicycle or skateboard rolling down the street with a rolled up newspaper or just his hand, smacking a line of cars one at a time, causing their alarms to ring... Quite a cacophony of sound!...

Skip ahead to 2014, and the equivalent delinquent is using those ring toss looking roller devices, or possibly a solo wheel, rolling down the street, casually flicking the back of every one's collar, causing inflatable helmet after inflatable helmet to deploy amongst the unsuspecting gliders/bikers.

I didn't mean to start an argument. But assume a big truck passes you and the side-view mirror hits you in the back of the head.....

As you said, details would be useful. Having the correct combination of triggering factors for this device could be as complex as the control equations for the Segway.

Regarding "angle" - an interesting point. But I would hate to have the thing "go off" if I bent over to tie my shoes, or ....

And bike riders sometimes assume a quite-horizontal position.

Three footnotes:

1. If it deploys, it's done. Not reusable.

2. To the question of using it on a moped, skis, inline skates, skateboard, etc. - their answer is "No,...only designed for cycling". So, apparently not for Segways.

3. Apparently costs a bit more than $500.00

I believe we are more in agreement now than disagreement. The mirror example allowed me to more clearly see what you are speaking of than the branch, and from that perspective, I fully agree.

As to the deployment, I do think the idea a novel one, but find it unlikely that this helmet idea will be met with as much success as the air bags in cars concept because of the variances in position that do not exist inside the car.

As far as its applicability to other uses, like mopeds, skis, inline skates and the like, and their statement that their answer is "No..." could indicate that they have not tested it for those environments, and the sheer numbers of segways relative to other applications might mean that they will not ever get to that level of testing. However, if one were to analyze the head movement likely in biking and segways, it may seem that it is a poor fit. They did describe how it is weighted in the back, so that when riding, the weight will keep it centered and more on the back than the shoulders. This presumes a forward leaning position that is pretty common on bicycles. Some bikes with taller handlebars have people lean forward less, and racers have a tendency to have people lean forward more, but the general position is fairly forward leaning. I do not think that position is as prevalent on segways, I know not so for myself. For myself, I am pretty upright. I do lean a few degrees forward on full glide, but not much at all, and far less than on my bikes. (I have seen side view video and photos of me on either item.)

So, in all, I say nice idea. Interesting. I am curious, but am not ready to endorse. And, I would like to know more.