Abstract:
A protective helmet system ( 10 ) that integrates turn signal light, break signal light, motion sensors ( 710 ), Bluetooth connectivity and a remote control ( 180 ) is provided. The system ( 10 ) comprises a helmet ( 20 ) for providing protection and enhancing safety to a rider on a vehicle, and a remote control ( 180 ) for wirelessly controlling electronics in the helmet ( 20 ) to perform functions. The helmet ( 20 ) comprises a LED strip ( 60 ). The LED strip ( 60 ) comprises a flexible base ( 68 ) and a plurality of LEDs ( 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 671, 672, 673 ) installed on the flexible base ( 68 ). In addition, the LED strip ( 60 ) is configured to produce light signals to cars and pedestrians surrounding the rider, causing the rider to be more visible to the surrounding cars and pedestrians to thereby promote safety to the rider.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/126,579, filed on Feb. 28, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to helmets and safety devices for protecting riders of vehicles, including bicycles and motorcycles. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    The helmet is intended to protect the head in the event of impact. However, most bicycle helmets are not designed to prevent accidents that may result in head impacts or other bodily harm. According to the  Boston Cyclist Safety Report  2013 published in May 2013 and by the City of Boston, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, 32% of bicycle accidents are due to motorists not seeing the cyclists; this includes 18% of bicycle accidents that result from “dooring”, i.e. when a vehicle door is extended into cyclists (p. 17 of  Boston Cyclist Safety Report  2013). Another 38% of bicycle accidents result from improper cyclist adherence to traffic rules such as running stop signals and riding into oncoming traffic (p. 17 of  Boston Cyclist Safety Report  2013). Taken together, 70% of bicycle accidents are due to a combination of poor cyclist visibility and improper adherence to road rules. These accidents could be prevented if cyclists were more visible on the road and shared a common system to communicate their actions on the road. With bicycle ridership expected to increase significantly in the near term, particularly in urban environments with more traffic, it is important that cyclists are equipped with the proper gear to help prevent accidents proactively. 
         [0004]    The conventional bicycle helmet is limited to reactively minimizing impact to the head. The conventional bike helmets are designed with an inner liner typically consisting of expanded polystyrene foam and a plastic outer shell that is adhered to the inner lining with glue and/or tape. This conventional design minimizes head trauma in the event of an impact, but it does not help cyclists avoid impact by being more visible on the road, especially in darkening or dark environments when most accidents occur. (From p. 14 of the  Boston Cyclist Safety Report  2013, most accidents occur around 5 pm.) 
         [0005]    Many cyclists attempt to address this problem by attaching lights or reflectors to their bicycles, helmets or clothing. These solutions are insufficient as most lights and reflectors are too small to be seen or are not bright enough to be seen from a safe following distance. Lamps or reflectors positioned on certain parts of the bicycle such as the wheel or underneath the seat are not visible to motorists on the road from certain angles or following distances. Furthermore, the placement of the lamps and reflectors is unique from cyclist to cyclist. The lack of a standardized, common lighting system can result in motorists, other cyclists and pedestrians not adequately seeing cyclists. 
         [0006]    An integrated solution is therefore needed to provide both passive impact protection and also active protection for signaling to cyclists. 
         [0007]    Furthermore, helmets have thus far not been well utilized as a platform for additional technology enhancements. As helmets are devices that are often worn in various circumstances, there is an opportunity to use helmets to solve more problems beyond just providing protection for the head. 
         [0008]    Multiple ideas have existed to augment helmets with technologies. However, thus far, few have been brought to the market. One reason is that it is a non-trivial issue to be able to integrate electronics into a helmet while maintaining integrity of the helmet that enables it to meet its primary objective, i.e. providing protection to that person&#39;s head. For example, bicycle helmets, depending on where one intends to sell them, must pass various standards such as EN1078 and the CPSC 16 C.F.R part 1203. The biggest components of these safety standards are the impact tests. 
         [0009]    To incorporate technologies onto a helmet, space must be made to accommodate the electronics. In order to preserve a beautiful aesthetic design of the exterior of the helmet and the helmet in general, the electronics must be “hidden” inside the helmet. However, doing so effectively means removing protective material from the helmet, decreasing its ability to pass the impact tests required of the EN1078 and the CPSC 16 C.F.R part 1203. 
         [0010]    There is a need in the art to have a smart helmet and a mechanical design enabled one to resolve the above-mentioned engineering challenge, allowing one to create a helmet that (1) incorporates electronics onto the helmet, (2) effectively hides the electronics from the user, and (3) still passes prevailing safety standards for bicycle helmets. Although the need to have the smart helmet and the mechanical design is evolved from analyzing the need for protecting bicycle riders, the smart helmet and the mechanical design are also useful for protecting riders of other vehicles such as motorcycles. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0011]    A first aspect of the present invention is to provide a helmet for providing protection and enhancing safety to a rider on a vehicle. 
         [0012]    The helmet comprises a light emitting diode (LED) strip installed on the helmet. The LED strip comprises a flexible base and a plurality of LEDs installed on the flexible base. In particular, the LED strip is configured to produce light signals to cars and pedestrians surrounding the rider, causing the rider to be more visible to the surrounding cars and pedestrians to thereby promote safety to the rider. 
         [0013]    The helmet further comprises a liner configured to protect a head of the rider. The LED strip is integrated with the liner. Preferably, the liner is made from high-density impact-absorption foam, enabling the liner to protect the head of the rider. 
         [0014]    The helmet further comprises an electronics and battery box having electronics for at least controlling the plurality of LEDs. The electronics and battery box is integrated with the liner. In one embodiment, the electronics and battery box comprises a bottom plastic housing and an upper plastic housing both configured to form an enclosure when the bottom plastic housing is fitted to the upper plastic housing. In another embodiment, the electronics and battery box comprises a magnetic charging port. Yet in another embodiment, the electronics and battery box is configured with Bluetooth connectivity for communicating with an external Bluetooth-enabled device. 
         [0015]    Preferably, the plurality of LEDs includes a front-right LED, a back-right LED, a back LED, a back-left LED, a front-left LED, a left brim LED, a right brim LED and a center brim LED. In one realization, each of the front-right LED and the front-left LED is a super-bright dual-color orange and white LED, the back-right LED and the back-left LED are super bright orange LEDs, the back LED is a super bright red LED, the left brim LED and the right brim LED are orange LEDs, and the center brim LED is red. The electronics and battery box is configured to when the rider is biking straight, control the LED strip such that the back LED is blinking, causing the rider to become more visible to the surrounding cars and pedestrians. 
         [0016]    In one option, the electronics and battery box comprises one or more proximity sensors, one or more speakers, and one or more vibration motors. Furthermore, the electronics and battery box is configured, when detecting an approaching vehicle via the one or more proximity sensors, to control the center brim LED to blink and increase the brightness of the LED strip, and to trigger the one or more vibration motors to vibrate and the one or more speakers to emit alarming sound thus to notify the rider. 
         [0017]    The electronics and battery box may comprise one or more motion sensors. The electronics and battery box may be further configured to, when the one or more motion sensors senses deceleration of the vehicle, change the LED pattern such that the back left LED, the back LED, the back right LED are kept on until the vehicle comes to a stop. 
         [0018]    Preferably, the helmet further comprises an upper shell and a bottom shell both for protecting the rider. It is also preferable that the helmet further comprises a harness for enabling the helmet to be fastened to a head of the rider. 
         [0019]    A second aspect of the present invention is to provide a protective helmet system. The system comprises the helmet according to any embodiment disclosed in the first aspect of the present invention, and a remote control for wirelessly controlling electronics in the helmet to perform functions. 
         [0020]    In one option, the remote control comprises a left button, a right button and a mount, where the left button and the right button are positioned on or over the mount. In another option, the remote control comprises a mount having two wired buttons as the left button and the right button. 
         [0021]    Preferably, when the rider presses the left button to signal that the vehicle is turning left, the back LED, the left brim LED, the front-left LED and the back-left LED are kept blinking. When the rider presses the right button to signal that the vehicle is turning right, the back LED, the right brim LED, the front-right LED and the back-right LED are kept blinking. 
         [0022]    A third aspect of the present invention is to provide a helmet for providing protection and enhancing safety to a rider on a vehicle. The helmet comprises one or more electronics boxes. An individual electronics box comprises a cover, a bottom, a wing and a cavity. The wing protrudes from the cover and extends to contact the helmet for absorbing impact energy during an impact. The cavity is situated between the bottom and the helmet. The cavity is used for preventing compression of a foam of the helmet beneath the individual electronics box at an early stage of the impact. 
         [0023]    Other aspects of the present invention are disclosed as illustrated by the embodiments hereinafter. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0024]      FIG. 1  is a schematic of a protective helmet system in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0025]      FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C  depict different views of the protective helmet of  FIG. 1 , where  FIG. 2A  provides a perspective view while  FIGS. 2B and 2C  provide two different exploded views. 
           [0026]      FIG. 3  is a perspective exploded view of the electronic box assembly of the helmet in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0027]      FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C  give three views of a LED assembly of the helmet in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, where  FIG. 4A  provides a perspective view,  FIG. 4B  gives a top view, and  FIG. 4C  gives a side view. 
           [0028]      FIGS. 5A-5D  show different versions of the remote control of the helmet according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0029]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart providing an example to illustrate a flow of steps implemented in a main printed circuit board (PCB) firmware program. 
           [0030]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart providing an example to illustrate a flow of steps implemented in a remote control PCB firmware program. 
           [0031]      FIGS. 8A, 8B and 8C  depict the helmet with the electronic box featuring a wing design in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, where  FIGS. 8A, 8B and 8C  provide a perspective exploded view, a bottom cross-section view and a side cross-section view, respectively. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0032]    The present invention provides a smart helmet and a mechanical design thereof, enabling one to create a helmet that (1) incorporates electronics onto the helmet in such a way that the electronics are effectively hidden from a user, and (3) still passes prevailing safety standards for helmets. 
         [0033]    Although the invention is hereinafter described in embodiments predominantly based on an example application of the invention to a rider on a bicycle, the present invention is not limited only to applications to bicycles. The present invention is applicable to any vehicles, such as motorcycles, where riders on these vehicles wear helmets for safety and protection. 
         [0034]    Exemplarily, the present invention is described by illustrating an exemplary embodiment of the smart helmet and its mechanical design as follows. 
       OVERVIEW OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
       [0035]    In accordance with the exemplary embodiment, a protective smart helmet is integrated with one or more brake lights, one or more turn signal lights, one or more motion sensors, one or more proximity sensors, a vibration motor, one or more speakers, a microphone, a camera, one or more wireless remote controls, and Bluetooth connectivity. In addition, this protective smart helmet system is configured such that a rider of a vehicle (especially a bicycle or a motorcycle) is enabled to:
       be more visible on the road;   be able to communicate the rider&#39;s turning intentions to other people around the rider;   control turn signals on the helmet wirelessly via a remote control;   be able to communicate the fact that the rider is slowing down to other people around the rider via using a brake signal light feature;   connect the helmet with the rider&#39;s phone or another electronic device, and interact with other application software, activity tracking software, or software to change and control the pattern of lights on the helmet;   sense when the rider might have been in a crash, and automatically send a signal to a pre-selected emergency contact via a phone or other means through the Bluetooth connection;   receive audio, visual or haptic feedback via one or more proximity sensors if an object approaches the rider;   record photographs, video signals and/or audio signals of areas surrounding the rider via an integrated camera; and   have the rider&#39;s head remain protected in an event of impact, the protecting having the same degree as specified and required for all helmets in one or more standards.       
 
         [0045]    According to the exemplary embodiment, a mechanical design of a helmet that incorporates electronics into the design has the following features.
       The helmet has a cavity housing the electronics.   In addition, the helmet has a plastic enclosure for enclosing the electronics so as to provide an aesthetic exterior outlook.   The helmet further includes an impact absorbing gel that sits between the enclosure and a liner of the helmet.   The plastic enclosure features a “wing” design that enables the enclosure to share, transfer and distribute stress from the impact to areas surrounding the enclosure, thereby maintaining the helmet&#39;s ability to protect the rider&#39;s head in an event of impact in order to satisfy the requisite safety standard required for the helmet.       
 
       Construction Method of the Helmet 
       [0050]      FIG. 1  is a schematic representation of a protective helmet system  10  according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The helmet system  10  comprises a helmet  20  and a remote control  180 . The helmet  20  comprises an upper shell  31 , a bottom shell  32 , a harness  33 , a LED strip  60 , and an electronics and battery box  70 , all of which are integrated with a liner  40  to form the helmet  20  as described in further detail as follows. The upper shell  31  and the bottom shell  32  are made of hard materials and are means for protecting a rider who wears the helmet  20 . The harness  33  enables the helmet  20  to be fastened to the rider&#39;s head. The LED strip  60  is installed on the helmet  20 , and has plural LEDs for producing light signals such that the rider becomes more visible to surrounding cars and pedestrians, thereby promoting safety to the rider. The electronics and battery box  70  is a place for housing (often visually-unbeautiful) electronics for operating the helmet  20  while maintaining a beautiful aesthetic outlook for the helmet  20 . The upper shell  31  and the bottom shell  32  may be decorated to generate the beautiful aesthetic outlook. 
         [0051]    Construction of the helmet  20  is explained as follows with the aid of  FIGS. 2A-2C .  FIG. 2A  provides a perspective view of the helmet  20  while  FIGS. 2B and 2C  give two different exploded views thereof. The upper shell  31 , the LED strip  60 , the bottom shell  32  and the harness  33  are attached and integrated to the liner  40  so as to form the helmet  20 . Preferably, the upper shell  31  and the bottom shell  32  are vacuum-formed with plastic. The liner  40  is also preferably made from high-density impact-absorption foam having multiple vent holes for ventilation, plural channels for embedding the LED strip  60 , plural wells for housing the electronics and battery box  70 , and holes for enabling the harness  33  to be fix therein. 
         [0052]    The electronics and battery box  70  is also deemed a control module for the helmet  20 . Hereinafter, the two terms “the electronics and battery box” and “the control module” are used interchangeably. 
         [0053]    Furthermore, the liner  40  is configured to provide safety protection to a rider of the helmet system  10 . When the rider is impacted on his or her head, the liner  40  will be deformed, thus absorbing the energy of impact to protect the rider&#39;s head. 
         [0054]      FIG. 3  depicts a perspective exploded view of the electronics and battery box  70  of the helmet  20  according to one embodiment of the present invention. The electronics and battery box  70  comprises a bottom plastic housing  75  and an upper plastic housing  76  both configured to form an enclosure when the bottom plastic housing  75  is fitted to the upper plastic housing  76 . The electronics and battery box  70  further comprises one or more proximity sensors  77 , one or more speakers  78 , one or more vibration motors  79  and one or more motion sensors  710 . In one implementation, a PCB board  73  is also installed in the electronics and battery box  70 . The electronics and battery box may also include a magnetic charging port  71 . In addition, the electronics and battery box  70  is configured to house a battery  74 . 
         [0055]      FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C  depict different views of the LED strip  60  in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The LED strip  60  comprises a flexible base  68 , and a plurality of LEDs installed on the flexible base  68 . Preferably, the plurality of LEDs includes a front-right LED  62 , a back-right LED  63 , a back LED  64 , a back-left LED  65 , a front-left LED  66 , a left brim LED  671 , a right brim LED  672  and a center brim LED  673 . In one preferred embodiment, each of the front-right LED  62  and the front-left LED  66  is preferably a super-bright dual-color orange and white LED; the back-right LED  63  and the back-left LED  65  are preferably super bright orange LEDs; the back LED  64  is preferably a super bright RED LED; the left brim LED  671  and the right brim LED  672  are preferably orange LEDs; the center brim LED  673  is red. 
         [0056]      FIGS. 5A-5D  depict perspective views regarding different versions of the remote control  180  according to one embodiment of the present invention. Refer to the two versions shown in  FIGS. 5A and 5B  first. The remote control  180  comprises a left button  51 , a right button  52 , an electronics box  50 , and a mount  53  that is attached to a handle bar of the bicycle (or a handle bar of any vehicle that the rider rides on). The left button  51  and right button  52  are preferably made of soft rubber plastic. It is also preferable that the casing is plastic. Preferably, the mount  53  is plastic. In each of the versions shown in  FIGS. 5A and 5B , the left button  51  and the right button  52  are positioned on or over the mount  53 . In  FIGS. 5C and 5D , there are two other versions each of which has a mount  54  having two wired buttons as a left button and a right button. 
         [0057]    The LED strip  60  is controlled by the control module  70 . In the normal time when the rider is biking straight, the control module  70  will signal the LED strip  60  so that the back LED  64  is blinking. In this way, the rider will become more visible to surrounding cars and pedestrians. 
         [0058]    The control module  70  also is configured with the Bluetooth connectivity for communicating with an external Bluetooth-enabled device in one embodiment. In one mode of operation, the control module  70  can connect to a smartphone, and communicate with a designate smartphone application through Bluetooth. The control module  70  can transmit the information about the battery  74  to the smartphone so that the remaining energy on the battery  74  can be displayed. The rider can also designate blinking patterns for the LED strip  60  under different situations. When the control module  70  detects occurrence of high impact on the helmet  20  through the one or more motion sensors  710 , the control module  70  can also transmit signal to the smartphone to trigger emergency call or messaging function on the smartphone. 
         [0059]      FIGS. 6 and 7  are two flowcharts showing examples of firmware programs implemented in the control module  70  and in the remote control  180 , respectively. 
         [0060]    Note that it is required to install electronics into the helmet  20  to provide functions thereto. In this regard, one or more electronic boxes, including the electronics and battery box  70 , are included in the helmet  20 . Advantageously, each electronic box may be designed with a further objective of providing protection to the rider against being impacted by electronic components in the electronic box in case of an accident. 
         [0061]      FIGS. 8A, 8B and 8C  depict a perspective exploded view, a bottom cross-section view and a side cross-section view, respectively, of a helmet with an electronics box having a wing design in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In particular,  FIGS. 8A, 8B and 8C  illustrate a method of integrating electronics into a helmet  82  with an electronics box  200  that features the wing design. In these figures, a cover  80  of the electronics box  200 , a bottom  81  of the electronics box  200 , the helmet  82  that the electronics are integrated in, and an exemplary PCB  83  that represents the electronics are shown. How this design enables the integration of electronics into the helmet  82  is through the following two ways. 
         [0062]    First, a wing  91  protrudes from the cover  80  that extends the contact of the electronics box  200  to the surrounding helmet section of the helmet  82 . During impact, the surrounding area absorbs the impact energy. 
         [0063]    Second, a cavity  92  is situated between the bottom  81  of the electronics box  200  and the helmet  82 . This cavity  92  prevents the compression of the foam of the helmet  82  beneath the electronics box  200  at the early stage of impact. During impact, the wing  91  transfers the impact energy to the area beneath the wing  91  first as the foam at this area collapse, this cavity  92  shrinks to a point that the foam beneath the bottom  81  of the electronics box  200  also starts to collapse and thus absorbs energy. If this cavity  92  were not there, the impact energy would pass to the foam beneath the bottom  81  of the electronics box  200  at the very first beginning of impact. Thus, more energy will be passed to this area where the foam is thinner because of the existence of the electronics box  200 . This cavity  92  thus acts as a buffer to let the foam that surrounds the electronics box  200 , which is thicker, absorb the energy first, thus decreasing the energy that the foam beneath the electronics box  200  need to absorb, and passing less energy to the head of the rider. 
       Operation Method 
       [0064]    There are several events that can trigger a change of the light pattern of the LED strip  60 .
       1. In one event that the rider is slowing down, the one or more motion sensors in the electronics and battery box  70  will sense the deceleration of the bike, and then changes the LED pattern such that the back left LED  65 , the back LED  64 , the back right LED  63  are kept on until the bicycle comes to a stop.   2. In another event that the rider presses the left button  51  on the remote control  180  to signal to the surrounding that it is turning left, the back LED  64 , the left brim LED  671 , the front-left LED  66  and the back-left LED  65  keep blinking.   3. In another event when the rider presses the right button  52  on the remote control  180  to signal to the surrounding that it is turning right, the back LED  64 , the right brim LED  672 , the front-right LED  66  and the back-right LED  65  keep blinking.   4. In the event when the control module  70  detects an approaching vehicle via the one or more proximity sensors  77 , the control module  70  will control the center brim LED  66  to blink and increase the brightness of the LED strip  60 . The control module  70  will also trigger the one or more vibration motors  79  to vibrate and the one or more speakers  78  to emit alarming sound thus to notify the rider.       
 
         [0069]    While the foregoing written description of the invention enables one of ordinary skill to make and use what is considered presently to be the best mode thereof, those of ordinary skill will understand and appreciate the existence of variations, combinations, and equivalents of the specific embodiment, method, and examples herein. The invention should therefore not be limited by the above described embodiment, method, and examples, but by all embodiments and methods within the scope and spirit of the invention as claimed.