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Heads-up display for helmets

6K views 28 replies 18 participants last post by  2009lowrider 
#1 ·
I'm an electrical engineering grad, and I'm a relatively new rider (been riding about three years). In my spare time, I put together a heads-up display for my own personal use. By chance, I took the helmet with me to a motorcycle show last month, and a few people I met said I ought to think about selling it.

I only have one, so I'm not actually selling it, but I thought I'd share it with the community to get some thoughts on it.





The eyepiece displays text in your field-of-view, so you can always keep your eyes on the road. It looks like this from the inside of the helmet:



All of the pieces are adjustable and they fit inside any helmet, so you don't have to buy a $1,500 helmet just to get $150 worth of electronics fitted inside. Plus, you can keep wearing the helmet that you know and like, not some gypsy helmet from an unproven manufacturer.

It works during the day, at night, and in the rain. All weather, all conditions.

As you can see, there is no frontal aerodynamic impact, because all of the pieces are tucked inside the helmet:





As far as safety is concerned, the eyepiece is made out of shatterproof glass, so even in the unlikely event that it breaks, it will hold together, just like a car windshield.

The pieces are stuck inside the helmet with an incredibly strong adhesive. Once placed, the pieces are damn near impossible to remove. You can try to yank them out, hard, and they won't budge.

The one thing that I plan on implementing soon is navigation. Looking at a tank-mount seems a bit farfetched to me, which is why I never got one, but having it in my field-of-view seems perfectly acceptable. That's the vision. That and slimming the whole thing down.

So, what do you guys think? Do you see yourself buying one of these, if it were available?
 
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#25 ·
Going out on a branch.... but if I was to guess thats exactly where the inspiration for such devices derives from?

That and hands free devices :nerd

If it could warn ya about distracted drivers somehow!
 
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#9 ·
How do you get the data stream from the bike's ECM to the helmet?

To answer your question, no I wouldn't buy one. I can't stand to wear a full face helmet, so I imagine a full face with even more crap in it would be even more claustrophobic.

Now, if you had a HUD that integrated into my bike in a clean and neat way and displayed the data on my windshield, I might be interested.
 
#11 ·
How do you get the data stream from the bike's ECM to the helmet?

To answer your question, no I wouldn't buy one. I can't stand to wear a full face helmet, so I imagine a full face with even more crap in it would be even more claustrophobic.

Now, if you had a HUD that integrated into my bike in a clean and neat way and displayed the data on my windshield, I might be interested.
OP probably doesn't. Accelerometer will display speed I believe.
 
#12 ·
I have mixed feelings about it. I am very particular about even minor distractions in my field of view, whether it be 4 wheels or 2. I can see the outline of the display in the pic and that might annoy me. Also, my bike has only a speedo and I'm good with that. Yes, GPS and such might be nice, but so is stopping once in a while to check the map, etc. I can see how others might like it, but even though I'm very much a tech guy, I'm not sure I'd be in.
 
#14 ·
Hell if the OP can do that with a helmet he could market the same setup for cars, trucks and ATVs too. I think overall there's a market to be had.
 
#15 ·
There available already for cars too.
 
#19 ·
Military pilots rely on HUDs. Did ya ever see those ? Like talk about confusing !!!
The display could be shrunk up into a corner someplace too. I drove a Vette with the HUD and I got used to it like right away, I didn't have to take my eyes off the road for anything, like look down at the speedo to see if I wasn't speeding ! It even had the radio info displayed in the windshield !
I don't intend on buying anymore new vehicles in my life but if there was something like the OP has on the inexpensive side I'd considering getting one for my car.
 
#20 ·
#21 ·
Wait, so is NuViz actually on the market? I've seen stuff about that for a million years. They've promoted it so long that many were deeming it vaporware.

I always thought the idea of HUD GPS would be cool. My mini-apes are just at the right height with the phone mount that I can just glance and catch it in my peripheral vision without taking my eyes off the road.

But it's something I would never buy unless I just had a decent income. The problem I saw for me with the NuViz, at least, was an inability to mount to half helmets. I also want it to be easy to swap between helmets. I wear my full-face when it's cold or raining and my half when it's hot. Yeah, I understand full face is way more protective, but no full-face is worth heat stroke here (and I don't care how well vented it is, it's never even close enough for our summers, especially when you're wearing leather vest and leather chaps/pants, or even just vented summer riding gear).

But another problem with this is if you make it not $700 like the NuViz, all you can afford to do is GPS and maybe speed/tach (if you can wirelessly Bluetooth it from the ECM). Then people wwill complain it doesn't have headphones and music or wireless calling or work with this phone or that thing, or doesn't have X feature. By the time you give them all they want, it's a bloated mess and so is the price.

It's a nice luxury idea, but I could never see myself buying one, or even using it much. I mean really, the ONLY thing I would want, is GPS and I would really only use that for trips. I wouldn't bother paying $150 for a minor increase in convenience (arguably, since some of that is negated by having to at least connect it by Bluetooth to the phone or something).

Plus, I don't need GPS the whole time. The way I use it now, I just glance to see what my next turn is... and if it's far away, how close I am getting to that turn.
 
#23 ·
Could be neat to have but could also be a distraction more then a help plus the added Expense what am I thinking about you already Have a Harley .

I Guess you have a speedometer and tach on the bike Mirrors a shifter and loud exhaust and some little lights . these item are already on the bike and positioned so they are easy to view in most cases . So why would you want stuff flashing in your line of site to distract you on a motor cycle.. .I stick with my low tech factory installed Options
 
#28 ·
The only problem I see with your product as opposed to those already on the market is that it can't be moved from one helmet to another easily.
 
#29 ·
What about a unit that mounts on the inside of a windshield, especially for my Dyna Low Rider with the Harley quick disconnect fork mounted windshield? Or does somebody already make this and I just haven't found it yet? I would buy it asap if it does navigation display. I'm not even worried about seeing speed. My main concern is good nav display to go with my iPhone SIRI audio. I really want to see a good map I can zoom in or out as wanted with good large enough to easily see road numbers and names and of course a compass.
 
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