Wearing a helmet means you’re doing something that is inherently dangerous. A way that many unknowingly compound that danger is by wearing headphones which block or muffle the sound of cars, sirens or other potential hazards. To fix this issue, Korea-based Analogue Plus came up with a wearable called Ahead — a product that is now live on Kickstarter.
Once paired with your smartphone, Ahead has the ability to clip on to any helmet. The lightweight device (just 65 grams) then uses an oscillator to pass vibrations into your helmet so you can hear music, talk on the phone and do anything smartphone-related. It’s similar to tech used in bone conduction except the helmet serves as the conductor as opposed to your head.
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Have you ever talked to somebody on the phone and it sounded like they were walking through a wind tunnel? Naturally that’s going to happen while you’re on a bike so the designers of Ahead placed a pair of narrow-angle microphones to capture sound in front of your mouth. This eliminates ambient noise for speeds up to 40 miles per hour.
Originally designed as a communication device for construction workers, Ahead is built to withstand a tremendous amount of wear and tear. It’s also easily interchangeable from one helmet to another — say a bicycle helmet to a motorcycle helmet.