It's an absolutely unsettling feeling to not be seen by a driver when biking along your route, especially during nighttime.
One bicycle helmet maker seeks to change that, making nighttime bicycling safer for bike riders and the drivers around them. Lumos boasts being the first smart bicycle helmet that integrates lights with brakes and turn signals.
With more than 60 LEDs, Lumos riders will more than light up the dark, making it known that they're on road in the night. Its lights make riders more visible in all directions because they're higher and larger than traditional bicycle-mounted lights.
With a built-in accelerometer, Lumos detects when you're are slowing down and automatically flashes its brake lights to alert drivers around them.
Turn signals work a little different. Instead of raising an arm for a manual and hard-to-see hand signal, the way that many drivers do during the night, Lumos displays left and right turn signals via a wireless remote attached to the bicycle's handle bars.
The next-generation bike helmet is pretty durable too, as it's water resistant and able to charge via simple micro-USB. The helmet can last up to two and a half hours when in flashing mode.
"I wanted to take control of my own safety by building a helmet that would make me more visible to everyone on the road," says Eu-wen Ding, founder of Lumos, in the product's Kickstarter video.
As of late Friday afternoon (July 17), Lumos had raised more than double of its $125,000 funding goal to with 26 days to go. A pledge of $119 can still get you the helmet.
This could become a go-to helmet option for bicyclists, looking for a safer ride during the nighttime.
