California start-up Skully Incorporation plans to ship the first orders of what it says is the smartest motorcycle helmet ever by Christmas.
Marcus Weller, founder and CEO of Skully Inc says the idea started off with an accident.
He was riding a motorcycle in Barcelona when he took his eyes off the road to look at a road sign and smashed into a car.
Weller says he dreamt about that accident a couple of years later, but in the dream he didn't crash.
"It was an exact flashback dream of that experience. But the important difference was I wasn't looking around for street signs and trying to figure out where I was going because I had these GPS maps and they were floating out in front of me like a hologram. I'm going down the road and because I am looking forward I see the car break and I swerved around it and I didn't get into the accident. That woke me up out of a dead sleep and I sat up in bed and I had goose bumps and I was like 'that is going to save peoples lives'."
That dream was the inspiration for the smart motorcycle helmet.
Weller explains that utilizing a state of the art video system the smart helmet enables a rider to see in every direction at once with no blind spots.
"What the video system in the helmet does is with zero latency it takes a 180 degree blind spot camera. It’s an ultra wide angle camera and it gives you eyes in the back of your head and it renders that in the heads up display."
Weller says the developers have to ensure the technology was in sync with how the human brain processes vision.
"It is leveraging or capitalizing on the way our brains and our visual systems naturally work to put that information back into the field of view, back in infinite focus to wherever I look it is in focus and reducing the reaction time, reducing the likelihood of a life threatening accident."
The helmet syncs to a phone via Bluetooth enabling hands-free calling, GPS navigation, and music streaming while keeping your eyes on the road.
The first helmets are scheduled to start shipping out to buyers just in time for Christmas.
