In an age where there is so much traffic on the roads, accidents are just something waiting to happen. And in those accidents, motorcyclists are those who get injured the most. Hence, helmets are a necessity for riders. Where a simple helmet can offer you just safety, there’s a lot more that a helmet can offer to its rider as Dr. Marcus Weller, CEO of Skully AR-1 thinks. After being in a number of accidents, he started looking for a helmet that offered what he needed, but failed to find anything fulfilling his requirements which consisted mainly of a rear view camera, HUD directions and GPS.
“At the time, I didn’t even have a motorcycle, but I was ready to spend money on it, which made me realize that I needed to build it,” said Weller.
So that’s what led him to design the Skully AR-1. He designed it to fulfill every requirement that he had from a bike helmet. The Idea was inspired from his 2011 accident, where he took his eyes off the road to read a sign. Skully AR-1 comes with a heads-up display that projects information below the right eye and is not a nuisance when you are looking at the road.
The display also contains a rear view mirror that provides you the view of the back and is quite wide. It saves the rider from the hassle of turning around to check the traffic behind and can keep eyes on the road in front at all times.
The screen comes with GPS thanks to an integrated GPS antenna, that can provide directions. The image appears to be 10 feet ahead of the rider and stays in focus at all times, regardless where the rider is looking. This automatic infinitely variable focus has been made possible by a technology known as Synapse platform.
Skully offers Bluetooth connectivity that can not only help you with hands free calling but can also be used to play your favorite songs using music services such as Pandora. It offers voice recognition system as well for better experience. The companion app makes sure that the heads-up display is in the perfect spot as no two riders will have the same head and face.
Even with all the assistance it provides, we cannot help but wonder if the helmet could actually be adding to the distractions for the rider. After almost 0.1 million beta tester applications in 2013, Weller recently turned to crowd funding source Indiegogo with an objective of raising enough funds to launch the product in the market by 2015 and he succeeded.