The invisible airbag helmet
For anyone who hates helmet head but also the idea of bicycling around unprotected, the Hövding helmet is a compelling innovation. Hovding is essentially an airbag for your head. It comes in the form of a collar you wear around your neck that's stuffed with an airbag and sensors that register your movement 200 times a second. If the sensors recognize abnormal movement, the airbag deflates in one-tenth of a second to absorb the impact shock and protect your head, face, and throat. Aside from being a stylish option, the Hövding has some impressive safety specs. Accordingto one test, the Hovding is three times more protective than the best mainstream helmets on the market. It costs around 299 euros, or $340. Unfortunately, once it inflates, it can't be used again.
The helmet that's like Google Glass
When pedestrians get a bit lost, they can pull out a smartphone and open Google Maps. This is nearly impossible (and very dangerous!) as a cyclist. That's why a London-based ideas lab called the Future Cities Catapult has prototyped a helmet that comes with a Google Glass-like visor to help cyclists navigate the city with better ease and safety. The helmet could use data from bike and street maps to highlight direct routes, warn about danger zones, and detect blind spots around large vehicles. "If these displays talked to the city around them — if they knew where the cyclist was and what they were looking at — they could give much more subtle spatial and contextual information that builds on the surroundings of the cyclist," the creators write.
