You know we love ourselves some innovation, especially when it combines health, style, and technology in one. The Hövding is such a gadget, and hopes to revolutionize the world of wearable safety one inflatable helmet at a time.
Developed as a collar for bicyclists, the Hövding is ergonomic, practical, complies with all standard safety requirements, and happens to blend in with just about any outfit. Instead of a bulky helmet, it’s similar to an airbag shaped like a hood, made to surround and project the bicyclist’s head. It protects you and your do. ;)
The helmet is triggered to inflate by sensors which pick up the abnormal movements of a bicyclist in an accident. It’s made using ultra-strong nylon fabric that won’t rip when scraped against asphalt or gravel, and takes just 0.1 seconds to inflate, protecting you even in the quickest of accidents.
Once you put on the Hövding (outfitted in whichever color collar you prefer), simply switch on and set off on your day. Each collar has an LED logo that lights up when the helmet is on, six LEDs showing the battery level, and a micro USB port for charging the battery.
That’s right, you can charge this puppy on your computer! In addition, there is a black box in the Hövding that records 10 seconds of date on your movement patterns during (and just before) a bike accident. At this point, this is for the makers of the helmet to continue to develop better and better devices, but we see a lot of potential for tracking metrics and moments during your bike ride via the Hövding.
Seeing as the Hövding is currently on the market for $600, it’s likely folks will keep rocking traditional helmets for quite a while, but we’re super excited to see what other places this type of inflatable safety could show up in a wearable way. Would this work on a ski slope? Could it work in conjunction with a traditional helmet for motorcyclists?