For many car drivers Sat Nav is standard issue these days. Gone are the days where we reached for the maps because, more often than not, we simply plug in our little device and let it get us from A to B without even thinking.
However, few motorcyclists have got that luxury. That could soon be a thing of the past if the latest breakthrough is anything to go by. Visor Down is a Russian start-up company that believes it is very close to breaking the market with the first ever officially approved Sat Nav helmet for motorcycle riders.
Although this will be a significant breakthrough, and no doubt a godsend for many motorcyclists, it will set you back a pretty penny to have the privilege of having the navigation tech built in to your helmet, with prices predicted at roughly $2,000, which for the UK would be £1200+. That being said, there’s still a way to go before you need to get saving for these impressive new helmets.
LiveMap, the company putting the idea into reality, is using a crowd-funded system known as Indiegogo to raise funds to make the idea a reality. Using this option means that, if LiveMap reaches the target funds of $150,000, it could be selling these GPS helmets by 2014. While you can choose to pay as little as $1 towards the fund, you can also be much more generous and pay $1,500 and get yourself a pre-order in place for when these beauties become available.
Despite the fact that progress is steadily being made, there is still much to be fine-tuned and refined before the prototype helmet is anywhere near the spec it needs to be in order to go on sale. However, that isn’t to take away the importance of this breakthrough, which will see a minimal GPS interface which is semi-translucent and hovering before your eyes inside the helment.
Alongside the design there are also talks of integrating Bluetooth into the helmet to add another dimension, however, as of yet there doesn’t seem to be any definite plans in place for this. We do know that the helmet will use voice-controlled GPS in order to change settings, alter your route, search for POIs and more.
As expected with any new technology, the news has critics divided – will it be a wonderful innovation or a dangerous distraction? Either way, if you’re interested to see the prototype and have a gander at how the funding process is going you can visit the Indigogo fundraising page for LiveMap.