Smart Helmet Gives Eyes Behind Your Back

A motorcycle accident fired up a creativity to design helmet to increase safety. Skully AR-1 is a smart helmet with heads-up display and rear facing camera. The founder and inventor is inspired by his accident. The helmet may soon be ready for shipping.

Marcus Weller rode a motorcycle in Barcelona years ago, when he looked at the road sign for a little while and did not look the road ahead. He ended up crashing into a car. From that incident, he tried to provide more protection to riders on the road. He founded the Skully Helmets Inc in 2013 and worked hard to invent a helmet that gives a wider view for its wearer. Last year he introduced the smart helmet, Skully AR-1.

Venture Beat describes the helmet according to Weller is the smartest motorcycle helmet ever developed. It utilizes a state-of-the-art video system, powerful on-board computer and heads-up display built into the visor. The wearer of AR-1 smart helmet is enable to see in every direction at once. With a video system that can cover 180 degree blind spot, " It gives you eyes in the back of your head and it renders that in the heads up display," said Weller.

Skully AR-1 helmet was designed to enhance rider's basic sensory experiences to improve motorcycle safety. Weller as the principal designer together with his brother, Mitchell, lead Skully to invent the first smart helmet. It is made with polycarbonate alloy shell, equipped with bluetooth and Internet connectivity to smartphone. With his background in intelligent transportation systems, human factors engineering, and industrial psychology, Marcus has a sufficient know-how of technology to increase human situational awareness.

Reuters reported that according to Marcus Weller, humans aren't designed to travel at 120 kilometers an hour. That is an evolutionary hurdle the developers needed to overcome, in order to ensure technology was in sync with how the human brain processes vision. His Skully AR-1 helmet is functioned to leverage the information surrounding the area into an information that can be processed by human brains naturally. It reduces the reaction time, hence reducing likelihood of a life-threating accident. The smart helmet is also able to sync to a phone via Bluetooth, enabling hands-free calling, GPS navigation, and music streaming.

Tech Cocktail praised Skully as one of the startups that change the world, and may well be the beginning of an entirely new era for motorcycle drivers. Among the list are Zappos and Airbnb.

Although there is no definite schedule, but with pre-orders that keep coming in since August last year, Skully AR-1 is expected to start its shipment soon.