The Wearable Airbag: Advanced Motorcycle safety

Do you ever feel a tad uncomfortable when you see a motorcyclist whiz pass with minimal protective gear on? Sure everyone wears a helmet, but I cringe when I see a T-shirt clad guy or even a mini-skirt wearing girl fly by seemingly oblivious to the carnage contact with asphalt can cause at speed. This is exactly why the following product caught my eye, the In&Motion wearable airbag.

It’s simply a vest worn by the driver that is capable of detecting a fall and it inflates in less than 100 milliseconds. A smart box located at the back of vest contains sensors and complicated algorithms that detect unrecoverable falls. On a sightly dark note the system can learn from previous falls from users to further sharpen its reaction time, so if you take a tumble you can take comfort in the fact that at least you’ve helped others.

A demonstration at CES Unveiled was remarkable really, an In&Motion employee donned the vest and manually inflated it. Like Pop Eye eating a tin of spinach he literally exploded into what looked like a ball of muscle. Now I can’t provide any facts about the legitimacy of this product, but I’d rather fall off a bike with this on than not. It’s said to provide protection for the neck, chest, spine, abdomen and hips.

The system is also reusable, with just the replacement of one part. The device is also capable of providing GPS, speed and trip data. So it’s great work from yet another start-up company.