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Motorcyclists To Get Wearable Airbags
jonerik writes "For the past hundred years or so motorcycle accidents have had an unfortunate potential for particularly horrific injuries, or worse. Improvements in safety gear have certainly been made in the past few decades, but in some ways those improvements have been balanced out by the tremendous speeds that modern bikes are capable of. According to this article from ABC News, though, Dainese, a protective sports clothing maker in Vicenza, Italy has developed a wearable airbag vest - called the D-Air - designed to cushion riders in the event of an accident. The D-Air vest features a tiny electronic computer referred to as the STM (which stands for Sensing, Triggering, and Memory), which was developed by an Israeli company called Merhav APP. According to the article, the STM contains sensors that monitor the bike's physical motion. 'The sensors onboard the STM will watch for telltale signs -- such as a sudden deceleration force of about ten times that of gravity -- that precede a collision. Once the computer determines an impending accident, the STM blasts the data to receiver in the vest to start the inflation process.'
This site also features some pictures of the D-Air vest in action. Dainese plans to begin selling the D-Air vest in Europe in the spring, though American sales will have to wait since the U.S. Department of Transportation has yet to set standards for such a device."
Next year's favorite college hazing stunt: jump off the highest building on campus, wearing one of these. Then wear it to the bar and chug a pitcher.
That D-Air is pronounced like "dare" is probably just a coincident, right ?
Is it likely to come with a warning "The usage of D-Air does not substitute driving with due care ?"
Oh my....
(Who knew NASA technology would pay off in this particular indirect way? Now our motorcyclists are bouncing around like Mars Pathfinder... After the accident maybe they can enjoy some refreshing TANG.)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Am I the only one that at first glance read that as:
:/
For the past hundred years or so motorcycle accidents have had an unfortunate potential for particularly horrific injuries, or worse; Improvements in safety gear
Methinks I need some coffee...
-Laz
Cool! I imagine what a motercyclist will look like during or after an accident, I guess like this: the (good old) Michelin-guy.
giel.y contains 2 shift/reduce conflicts
The main danger for motorcyclists are drivers in safe cars: all they have to lose is their no-claims bonus and they drive like maniacs as a result. Replace car airbags with a large spike which plunges through the driver's chest when they hit something, then we'll be safer.
-j
always sits behind me on the motorcycle.
(dont let her know I said that or she'll yell at me!)
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
The STM also features a radio transmitter that wirelessly links the box to a receiver built-into the D-Air vest.
Someone hits their garage door opener and you get blown off your bike...
nice
With this thing exploding around me quite fast what happens to my shoulders when the rucksack straps don't give and the bag tries to inflate behind it?
I'm picturing something more like the vest squeezing you until your head pops off like a cork on a champaigne bottle.
The sensors onboard the STM will watch for telltale signs such as a sudden deceleration force of about ten times that of gravity that precede a collision.
Yeah, riiiiiight...
and while they're at it why don't they try detecting other tell-tale signs like profuse bleeding and bone fractures that also precede a collision.
I guess when the computer determines an "impending accident" it dumps 1.21 jiggawatts into the flux capacitor.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I have ridden motorcycles for quite some time, and everyone I know has dropped their bike while parked at least once. Having your airbag vest go off at that time would make the event even more embarassing that it already is.
move along, nothing to
Unfortunately, drivers of SUVs aren't required to take these safety courses and end up killing a fair amount of their own citizens in smaller vehicles and motorcycles.
I knew SUV's were large, but I didn't realize that they constituted soverign nations yet. I guess I'll stick to walking.
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience
Will these come in the Bright Colors got the Crotch Rocketeers? Basic Black for the Harley riders?
What about alternate uses
-Base Jumping safety device
-new yuppie teach-your-kid-to-ride-a-bike saftey device
-New Staight Jacket for the mentally Ill
-Really safe sex device
I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence. Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1845
I wonder how many people will get one of these jackets and forget to take it off when they get off their motorcycle... The rider starts walking away, then the sensing circuits in the jacket detect that the rider and motorcycle are getting further away, then PFFFFFFT, instant fat rider! :^)
Coincidentally, I actually rode my Honda Magna 750 motorcycle into work today...
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
It looks the same and works identically except that the trigger goes off if the wearer acheives speeds of more than 20 miles per hour, as on a Segway this is an obvious sign of a collision...
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Yea, but there's like what, 10 people in Kansas? I'm sure you're safe.
...your motorcycle gear may be used as a flotation device.
unsigned int question = 0x2B | ~(0x2B)
It was the 3d person of a 15 member group of bikers that had died in the course of about 2 years, and i had enough. OK, most of the blame was up to us, we drove at incredible speeds on public roads ( 200 kph+ was not at all unusual
Christ, what was the name of this group? The Lemmings?
It may be good for motorists but it's very bad for humanity - the number of kidneys available as transplants will drop radically.
So, in the interest of humanity, ban those airbags now!
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12v relay - $3.50
9v battery - $2.29
momentary contact switch - $0.79
WarDriving with a spark gap generator to swamp the sensor in the exploding vest - priceless
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Rather than learning the lesson that doing 70+ mph sitting on a small strip of metal and 2 tires isn't exactly the brightest idea, they're finding ways to try to pad themselves. It's called a CAR.