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Android Motorcycle Helmet/HUD Gains Funding
DeviceGuru (1136715) writes Skully Systems has achieved Indiegogo funding for a high-tech Android 4.4 based motorcycle helmet with a head-up display (HUD), GPS navigation, and a 180-degree rearview camera. The Skully AR-1 helmet launched on Indiegogo on Aug. 10 and quickly blasted past its $250,000 flexible funding goal and has already surpassed $900,000 in funding. The helmet runs a heavily modified version of Android 4.4, with both screen size and safety in mind, according to Skully's Tow. 'You should not think of it as being Android as seen in a phone; it doesn't run the same skin,' wrote Tow on the Skully forum page. 'You instead should think of it as a variant of Linux, not Android per se. What counts is the device drivers, graphics rendering for our turn by turn directions and vehicle telemetry, etc. More nerdy things like communication over the I2C bus to the image processing module.' Helmets are available starting at $1,399, with shipments due in May 2015.
a head-up display (HUD), GPS navigation, and a 180-degree rearview camera
Shut up and take my money already!
Helmets are available starting at $1,399
Well, let's not be hasty.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I get the whole value of having something out of Snow Crash, but $1400 seems like a pretty high price point for a motorcycle helmet.
As a daily rider, I've been following this product. I'm already saving for its released next year.
I don't ride motorcycles, but I want to wear motorcycle gear and a Skully helmet just to look awesome.
...if you've got a cheap head, buy a cheap helmet.
buy any helmet you want and a google glass. problem solved.
HUD's in general are long overdue in mainstream autos. The tech ain't exactly exotic or expensive and the benefits are obvious.
This helmet may be expensive now, but once this takes off it won't be.
I'm a motorcycle rider and racer for over 40 year. This helmet scares me.
First, this little detail: "The “highly weather resistant” helmet is made of a “lightweight, aerodynamic” polycarbonate shell, says Skully Systems."
Polycarbonate - OK, that's the material used in low-end helmets (sub $200). In the $300+ category, we have fiberglass and carbon fiber. PC tends to craze (small cracks) when exposed to UV. I've seen a PC helmet crack in half when it fell off the bike and hit the concrete. Just from the material, I'm not interested.
Second - When I watched the video, I found the lower right display too distracting. Riding a bike in traffic, you never know when some idot will run a stop sign, or pull out in traffic. You need to be able to pick up any movement as you scan for threats. This adds distraction. Distraction on a motorcycle kills. Kills you dead.
Third - Did you see how most of the testimonials come from non-riders? There was a "tire expert" (WTF is that?) and only one racer/builder. So I think this is a bunch of tech guys putting together a somewhat-cheap helmet, as a way to sell cool tech.
Over time, this may (should?) evolve into something that works well. But I fear this will turn into the motorcycle-equivalent of the texting-while-driving problem.
Place nail here >+
Someone crashes his bike into a cement barrier and hits his head, smashing the helmet and rendering him paralyzed. Family files multiple lawsuits against multiple companies including the maker of this device built into the guy's helmet because it "distracted him", or because pieces of it pierced his skull. It's just a matter of time. I hope Skully has factored this into the price.
Did somebody say android helmet?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
http://www.reconinstruments.co... has an already proven solution hardware package that can easily be adapted to a full face helmet.
The problem with Skully is their chosen base helmet sucks, it's great for freaks with smushed heads, but normal people with round heads it's uncomfortable. so they will need to offer about 80 different helmet sizes to make a $1500-$2000 helmet fit everyone that wants to buy one.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It would be interesting to see this helmet with right and left cameras, and some type of radar unit for avoiding on comming traffic from the right, or left, and from the back side...
the excitement about the ironman theme seems to have eclipsed some major questions that I feel haven't been answered for many riders. call me a hater, but I guess the customer reviews will need to answer these:
1. what is the weight of this helmet?
2. did we ever solve the battery issue? how long, really, does this thing last?
3. im sure skully is all ears in san francisco, where your average motoring speed is well under 35, but can this thing communicate with me at highway speed?
4. is this device water resistant?
5. can it be charged from my bike like my phone?
6. what about riders with glasses?
7. many bikes already include bluetooth interfaces, how does Skully play with them?
as it stands, i can only see the helmet being adopted by vespa riding hipsters and the 20something lowered litrebike crowd; both of whom never leave main street or the comfort of first gear. anyone familiar with interstate and cross country riding already enjoy most everything skully provides. radio, pandora, gps, bluetooth, camera (front and rear) as well as realtime weather and traffic. its all been there for around a decade and already interfaces with bluetooth equipped helmets that are far more battle tested.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Helmets take damage, expire, and have a wide range of cost vs features that make it ridiculous to me to buy a helmet from a gadget company and I have more than one for different applications. I would happily plunk down reasonable money for a nicely prepped DIY kit to install their (IMO very useful) gadget in my current helmet though. Or, send my helmet to them for modification if it were a particularly difficult thing to do well. Better yet - spend some engineering time to make it easily transferable to any helmet.
I can't wait for my programmable Bike HUD!!!
At least it has chin protection. If you've ever seen what happens to a person's jaw when they face plant on the road wearing an open or half helmet you'll understand why it's essential.
". PC tends to craze (small cracks) when exposed to UV."
^This^ you have wrong.
While I won't argue that PC is the best material, that 'craze' comment is ... crazy.
Although some have expressed concern about the helmet being made of polycarbonate, there is no proven advantage to other materials over polycarbonate in a helmet, as long as it is done well. The helmet appears to be high-quality, and it is pretty light. It looks about as distracting as good mirrors and a nice gauge cluster, as long as you know how to use it. To me it looks worth the $1500. Not that I would buy it, but I see where the money went. It looks like a well-designed helmet and interface that is likely the future of helmets. Whiners that are scared of it are probably the same type of people who were scared of phones, radios, and any other technological innovation.
On a motorcycle you need all your wits about you. It's one of the things that is appealing to riding. The Zen of it. You don't have the ability or chance to think about much else except what you are doing in the moment. A serial thinker's escape. To think of other stuff too much and not pay strict attention to traffic, the road, the conditions, means you will die sooner than later, especially given you are riding on not in something at high speed. You need to be aware of your surroundings. This thing will effectively negate all the best practices of motorcycle riding by being a complete distraction.
Motorcycles are not fighter planes. Skies are a lot bigger than a roadway. A little drift here and there, you don't run into things. The only comparison would be very close formation flying. I doubt any pilot wants much if any distraction in those circumstances.
Sure one can turn it off if not needed. But that is most of the time. And I can buy a safer helmet cheaper, and a map to look at when stopped. Or even a handlebar mounted GPS device for when stopped. The instrument pods are already in a great place in terms of site line and not in your limited visual space.
These guys are going to kill their customers. They likely are Agile developers who don't understand the need for proper requirements analysis.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Spoken like.. someone who isn't a rider.
Helmets are 'disposable' gear. If you damage it in a crash, you toss it. If you drop it down the stairs, you toss it. If there is *any* doubt in your mind that it's 100% intact, you toss it.
I'd rather not toss the GPS, computer, and the rest of the techno gear out with it. Drop the price and release it as a 'retrofit kit' and I'm in. Until then, I'll keep buying 'normal' helmets (which these days offer integrated speakers and mounting for bluetooth dongles for GPS/phone/etc).
I too have been following the Skully and volunteered as a tester but was not selected. Do I think it's awesome? Heck yeah! But due to the steep price of this helmet and the shelf life of all motorcycle helmets at ~5 years, I'll be content with my Scorpion 1100 with Chatterbox X1 Slim as it does everything (protect the head and eyes, phone calls, bike-to-bike & bike-to-passenger VOX talk, turn-by-turn via smartphone, etc.) except the HUD and rear view camera and costs significantly less. And I can mount the Chatterbox to another helmet when this one is damaged or past it's shelf life.
;)
I agree that getting the best gear for safety is great, but learning to ride defensively is the best.
I'd rather spend my money on learning to ride by going through an AMA backed MSF class. After taking the basic class, I realized how it made me a better driver in my car let alone on the bike. The intermediate and advanced classes just improved on that foundation.
For those that ask why I ride daily... the fact I can get 45-50 MPG mixed riding on a 1300CC sport bike and have more fun than the Prius driver is the main reason
Read the rest of this rant...
I just spent $400 on a deeply discounted helmet. During the researching/buying process I tried on helmet modelss from many manufacturers... AGV, Bell, Shoei, Icon, and a coulple cheap no name brands. I found that every model from every manufacturer has a slightly different internal shape, and they all fit differently on my head. Some of them fit my head so badly (looking at you Shoei) that I almost isntantly got a ehadache wearing the proper size. I ended up picking the helmet that fit me 2nd best, a Bell Star.The best fitting helmet weighed 50% more and was not SNELL certified (safety is a BIG concern for me these days as I have a family). I commute to work on my bike, and I typically scratch/break a shield every 9 months or so.
Why am I saying all this?
Because as much as I'd LOVE to have an intergrated HUD visor/helmet, and would spend $1400 to have such a device, there is no way I'd plop down that kinda money on a helmet model I've never tried on before. Also things like airflow into the lid, airflow around the lid (especially when turning your head), make a huge difference and everything I read it takes millions to properly engineer a great motorcycle helmet.
If the project was to develop a visor, or internal eye piece, or helomet upgrade program that would work on MY helmet, I'd be a lot more interested.
it's a nice idea I suppose.
1. for those that can't function without an internet umbilical cord then this may be for you.
2. for those that ride to ride this is just a distraction.
I'm in the second group.
I ride.
While discussing this with a fellow rider the other day, I pointed out one of the biggest challenges this product (and the sport) faces- Low helmet usage.
Motorcycling's largest segment - the cruiser / "Harley People" group - can't be bothered to wear helmets. Or protective gear. Or not drink before riding.
The other culture segment - the Sportbike guys - are split between two subgroups:
-the Squids who wear protective gear comprised of an Affliction t-shirt, Abercrombie board shorts, sunglasses, and (sometimes) a backwards baseball cap with and Ed Hardy design on it, or -
-the guys who actually wear gear. Usually a lid, jacket, and gloves at a minimum, sometimes pants & boots.
To this group, a $1300 helmet is a lot of money when a good, low mileage used sport bike costs only $4-6k.
Considering that a good DOT/Snell helmet from a number of manufacturers cost only $200-600, why do you want to pay a huge premium to place your existing gauges & instruments two feet closer to your face?
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
To justify that cost they're going to have to be offering something pretty significant. As it stands, if what you really want is the rear view camera, drop the weight and get a Reevu instead ($400) - it uses a mirror array that goes through the crown of the helmet and displays just below the liner at the top of the viewport. Most GPS screens are distractions and I usually leave mine turned off while just listening to TBT directions via an A2DP headset ($100) which also handles audio and calls if I want them. Access to telemetry over the HUD is probably the only feature I can't easily get into my helmet some other way, and while I'd like it, it's not really a game changer for me. I know my tach data by the feel and sound of my engine. I know my speed by either a quick glance down or by paying attention to traffic around me. My gauge cluster also displays gear, tire pressure, fuel level, and an array of other information. If these were available in the HUD, it would be nice, but again, is a quick glance down worth $900? It also appears to lack an inner tinted visor and doesn't talk much about its ventilation, which are important to me.
I can't justify the price in my head for what I get.
This is the year of Linux on the cranium.
Methinks they are going about this wrong and should be making a kit to retrofit to an existing helmet. One that has a reputable history of top end safety features.
Also... I replace my helmets once every 2-3 years (I do about 30,000 km per year). I'd much rather have a kit that I can transfer, rather than re-purchasing all the electronics every time.
While I like the idea, as a motorcyclist who has had the odd 'off', I don't think I want a glass prism centimetres from my eye.