Sunday, June 23, 2013

Russian engineers working on a helmet mounted display for bikers

OFF THE WIRE

With the latest technological gadgets, travelling to any location with your car is pretty easy. You can look up on your mobile’s GPS or the inbuilt navigation system on your car to get directions to a particular place.

But what about people who love having long trips on their bikes?

Now you would say, they got their mobile phones for directions but we all know how hard it is to operate a smartphone while riding a bike. So, the only option for the biker is to take frequent breaks from his ride and look up on his mobile or a large map for directions and other stuff.

But now, a group of Russian engineers are looking to create a device which can potentially solve this problem. They are trying to create a helmet with an heads up display like the ones found on a F35 fighter jet helmet. Moreover the helmet would be voice controlled and hence will have inbuilt microphones and headphones.

Some of the features of the proposed device are as follows:

augmented reality for easy and user-friendly navigation
clearly visible collimated image i.e. it is always in focus, just like that in scope sights
full-color, translucent picture is projected right on the visor like in a F-35 fighter helmet, it’s safe, provides unobstructed view, doesn’t distract attention and eliminates the need for a separate display
supposed size of the system fits a motorcycle helmet – our helmet is going to be just a bit bigger than usual
two 3000 mAh batteries for a long operation time

microphone for voice control that keeps both hands free for driving
two earphones

light sensor for adjusting the image brightness according to external light conditions
G-sensor, gyroscope, digital compass for head movement tracking (the picture changes according to the view direction

The user interface is going to be simple and minimalistic so that the riders can easily control various functions with voice commands.

Unfortunately, as the interface is going to be simple, you can’t watch movies or play games using the device. But given that it is a helmet for riding a bike, you would be better off without such distractions.

The device is still in its initial developmental stages and the team promises more features as the funding reaches a given target.

http://thedroidguy.com/2013/06/russian-engineers-working-on-a-helmet-mounted-display-for-bikers/#ZVBHyjEyvevgIIA7.99