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    Swedish design company wins award for 'invisible' cycle helmet

    A leisurely cycle ride in the countryside on a cool summer morning can be a wonderful way to pass the time. Cycling in the city, on the other hand, sometimes involves putting your life on the line.

    With trucks and buses roaring by so close you could reach out and touch their wheels, it’s little wonder that every week you read reports of cyclists ending up under them instead.

    At the 2011 Index Design Awards ceremony in Copenhagen this week, Swedish design company Hövding won a prize for something that could greatly improve cyclists’ safety – especially those who don’t like to wear helmets. It’s a unique ‘invisible’ airbag, which is worn around the neck as a collar and inflates on impact in the event of an accident.

    The contest offers the world’s biggest monetary prize for design (100,000 euros for each category winner) and encourages entrants to target and solve problems in daily life.

    A video on the Telegraph website shows the airbag’s two designers, Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin, picking up the award, given in the ‘play’ category.

    Talking about their invention, Haupt said that when they did preliminary research, cyclists told them they didn’t like putting on a helmet because, despite the risks of not wearing one, they “look ugly, feel geeky [and] destroy your hair.”

    Someone suggested to Alstin that the helmet “should be invisible.” They then came up with the idea of something that fits around the neck, out of sight, which inflates in the event of an accident.

    According to Hövding’s website, the collar’s “trigger mechanism is controlled by sensors which pick up the abnormal movements of a bicyclist in an accident.” It sounds like a fabulous idea, just so long as a sudden sneeze doesn’t result in an unexpected inflation.

     

    94 comments

    • Ignorant monkey on a rock  •  8 mths ago
      They've have these inflatable neck braces for motorcyclists for awhile, but you have to wear a real helmet as well, for full head protection
    • Balswinger  •  8 mths ago
      How About a Picture?
    • alluvial fan  •  8 mths ago
      This sounds like a good reason to drive a car.
    • Keen Wolverine  •  8 mths ago
      I see it! It's cloaking device must be broken!
    • tacobilly  •  8 mths ago
      maxine waters bees racist pig;SI?
    • rich  •  8 mths ago
      Sweet pic yahoo.PFFFT!
      • 1950 8 mths ago
        Click on the Digital Trends logo, and scroll down to the story.
    • Quack  •  8 mths ago
      Just wear a helmet! Gees, helmets "look ugly. . . and destroy your hair"! Get over yourself!
      • Ari o 8 mths ago
        I agree...I think...if your life is worth less to you than how you look. Go ahead, ride without a helmet. For one, people have been doing it for decades and survived, for two, if your looks mean more to you than your life, let "Darwinism" reign......
      • Ari o 8 mths ago
        I can picture it now...Dang Joe, it really sucks that she died...yeah Fred, but she looks GOOD..........
    • PaganAngel  •  8 mths ago
      ICHIBAN!
    • J  •  8 mths ago
      My take of the Tea Party..... Throw them overboard.....
    • TJE  •  8 mths ago
      http://hovding.com/en/how/#airbag - picture of collar and then helmet after it's inflated.
    • Morey L  •  8 mths ago
      saw it...not gonna work in real life.
    • Blueberry P  •  8 mths ago
      What an amazing technological advance -no doubt we'll be building hotel on the outer rings of Saturn very soon, not.
    • topcat  •  8 mths ago
      hey i helped invent this thing, it works, there is no picture because it is invisible, read the headline, what a bucch of idiots
    • William S.  •  8 mths ago
      Yahoo! Where's the picture?
      • Paul G 8 mths ago
        No picture because it's invisible.
    • Douglas Byrd  •  8 mths ago
      A friend of mine went hunting two weeks ago wearing a camoflage outfit and one of these helmets and no one has seen him since..
    • Douglas Byrd  •  8 mths ago
      So you hit a bump,the helmet covers your eyes, causing your bike to go off the cliff, where your helmet gets caught on a limb,pulling your head from your body.How clever.
    • Douglas Byrd  •  8 mths ago
      Honest-it's an invisible condom.
    • JF  •  8 mths ago
      Thanks again for the photo Yahoo. Oh nevermind, probably couldn't have seen it anyway.
    • blah  •  8 mths ago
      put your mouse over the blue highlighted word "website" above and it takes you to a video demonstration of the device.
    • Dataman  •  8 mths ago
      Roll your cursor over the word "website" and click the link to the photos.
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