Technological progress offers ever more leading edge products to increase bikers’ safety and optimise driving experience. Sena’s Smart Helmet comes from California. It is a smart carbon-fiber helmet that filters out surrounding noises to preserve the biker’s concentration. An integrated system removes background noises and transmits only the sound of the engine and other useful noises (such as emergency signals). It is also features Intelligent Noise Control device, which filters out surrounding noises and, with the help of a Bluetooth connection, allows direct communication with passengers in the rear seat.
A system designed for safe driving
The device, thanks to its ‘clever’ headphones and four built-in microphones, removes background noises that enter the helmet and allows the driver to hear only the sound of the engine and other ‘useful’ sounds which help the driver to respect the road rules, such as emergency sirens or car horns.
The aim is to definitively reduce wind noise. The four microphones remove the constant noise of wind by creating an equal and opposite counter-wave. The same system is used in the headphones and, also recently has been employed in the interiors of some cars.
Depending on the quality of soundproofing and the aerodynamics of the helmet, such sounds can reach up to 100Db on the highway. This might cause, in the long term, negative implications both for the biker’s hearing and for reaction times.
Thanks to a bluetooth connection, Smart Helmet allows the user to connect it with his smartphone, talk with the passenger behind or other bikers on the road, and listen to music. All with a better sound quality than that from other helmets, available in the stores.
It doesn’t stop there.
Smart Helmet will also feature an “Ambient Mode” function, (the same technoology is also used in headphones’ system) which allows the user to control everything that is happening around him.
At the touch of a button, you can activate a microphone which amplifies surrounding noise in different situations. In this way, you do not need to raise your helmet to hear the conversations around you. It’s as easy as the press of a button.
The whole system is supported by a built-in battery, rechargeable via USB cable which can also be used for recharching the optional bluetooth function.
The helmet has been approved by American and European approval regulations (DOT, CEE) and will be available in three colours: black, white and carbon-fiber.
In additon to this, the Smart Helmet features other traditional functions:
- an internal ventilation system, with adjustable, rear air-extractors
- a padded interior to increase comfort and a carbon-fiber helmet shell.
A helmet with artificial intelligence
Another example is the new helmet by Intelligent Cranium Helmets, the American brand founded by Ambrose Dodson, which specialises in high tech helmets.
It has innovative features and it is designed to optimise safety and ensure comfortable driving.
The Intelligent Cranium Helmet is a futuristic helmet with a real artificial brain. In the front there is the main system that manages all functions and which can be integrated with mobile devices, such as smartphones, by using an appropriate app.
The only helmet which looks over your shoulder
At the back, there are two minicams that show what is going on behind the driver and notify the user when other vehicles are nearby, with a radius of vision up to 210 degrees. In addition, with these minicams, the driver can set the sat-nav with total autonomy, turn the music on and use other additional functions.
Camera footage is displayed by a colour monitor located on the visor.
The Intelligent Cranium Helmet, thanks to its collision radar, represents a solution for reducing a considerable number of motorcycle accidents. When a vehicle is nearby at high speed, the Intelligent Cranium Helmet activates a series of bright LEDs, each with different colours according to the distance of a possible danger. These different warning lights allow the user to respond quickly to any risk.
Intelligence, always one step ahead
In the front of the helmet shell there is chip for interacting with smartphones. So the user can answer phone calls with no distractions and without stopping.
Total protection from solar radiation
A sophisticated solar panel is incorporated in the visor, and represents the main power system of the Helmet. This system regulates the sunlight entering through the visor, with a gradual blackout process, allowing the biker to protect his vision from solar radiation.
