Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Augmented Reality finally arrives in Motorcycle Helmets.

Today I was at one of those trade shows that was chock full of companies trying to be the next Google Glass or Oculus.

I'm not going to talk about that today because I'm just not convinced that people will start wearing glasses despite the benefit of Augmented Reality. Which is about the hardest reality to describe to people. By the same token, Oculus has made some great strides in Virtual reality but I'm skeptical that people will want to strap these things to their heads for any great length of time. Even though I've tried it, and the weight doesn't seem that problematic - my personal opinion is that gets old fast. I mean, imagine playing games with a scuba mask strapped to your head.

What I do want to talk about is the HUD motorcycle helmets I ran across because I can see that as an actual product that will enhance a riders experience and safety. Motorcycle riders already have comes to grips with having a helmet on. Adding a little augmented reality hardware to the mix doesn't add that much weight.

Both of these companies have backward facing cameras which I thought was brilliant. The only real difference I saw was the placing of where the display showed up in your view. The Skully Helmet displays information in the lower right corner of your vision. The Fusar Helmet has a display along the top of your vision. I don't ride, so other than the tech I have no opinion on which one is better. I like the design of the Scully helmet, but I liked the placement of the display better on the Fisar helmet.

I was super happy that HUD technology is finally making it into something I can actually see people buying. I've been watching the tech forever. Watch the videos.

Skully Systems helmet.



Fusar Technolgies helmet.

No comments:

Post a Comment