It’s very easy to think of bike helmets as little more than hard, albeit effective, protective shells for our delicate heads. This, however, is becoming further and further from the truth. Following the successful funding of the CMYK electric folding bike last year, Brooklyness has joined the growing ‘smart helmet’ movement, creating a helmet with in-built blind spot alerts as well as motion-activated brake and turn signals.
Named ‘Classon’, the helmet aims to not only provide instant and reliable information to cyclists about what is happening around them, but also to indicate cyclists’ planned actions to other road-users. Cyclists’ safety, after all, is indeed a two-way street.
In order to do this, the helmet has both front and back cameras constantly scanning the surrounding environment, which is then interpreted by Brooklyness’ algorithms. A non-disruptive light under the visor then blinks if cars are approaching in blind spots from behind.
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Directional lights are also triggered by cyclists’ turning movements, serving as an extension to the traditional hand signals. Other features include the aforementioned automatic brake lights, guided navigation and the ability to live-stream cycle journeys. Accompanying these features, a Classon smartphone app will connect to the helmet, managing helmet settings, navigation and video.
The overriding hope is that improving safety will increase the number of people who use cycling as a means to get from A to B. Manuel Saez, founder, goes further. “Many people ride bikes occasionally, but few cycle on a daily basis, because of safety concerns. We wanted to create a helmet that would give cyclists the ability to ride without constantly worrying about being rear-ended”.
To help fund the helmet’s creation, Brooklyness has launched a 30 day crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter. At the time of writing, the $30,000 target is around $700 from being accomplished- all within just two days. Classon is now available on Kickstarter from $99, ranging to $199 for more complete packages.
With the electronics and prototypes already designed and a successful crowdfunding campaign in-tow, the release date is now reliant on testing, certification and production capabilities. However, if progress continues at the current rate, Classon helmets could be out on the roads by April 2017.