Kickstarter: Lumos Smart Helmet Integrates Automatic Brake Lights And Turn Signals For All Around Safety

Wireless turn signals, vastly increased safety, good battery life, promised output of a decent rating, and a pricetag that’s about on par for a nice helmet and a pair of good-quality lights? Hell yes on this thing! If my night time riding happened on the roads, I would absolutely pick one of these up!

I think the idea of EFFECTIVE lights in a helmet is a great idea provided the weight can be kept down. I don’t care about the brake lights and turn signals, honestly I think it’s silly. But a bright front and rear light would be great.

That said, I think there are a fair number of technical challenges here to make this something I would buy. In the dark I ride with one or two CatEye Volt 700 lights on my bars. (700 lumens each) These are pretty heavy, but are sufficiently bright for me. Now that there are so many lighting options out there, I wouldn’t want to ride with anything less than 700 lumens and standalone lights with that brightness are in the $100 range.

Make it bright, make it light, make it inexpensive?? Not happening.

@54 – You could make the same argument about car turn signals not being visible due to all the other light noise.

I see this as improving safety against both drivers and other cyclists. On busy cycling routes I often get strangers drafting me. I personally hate it. There must be a rule against that, no? When commuting I also stop at stop signs (yes, I am a bore) and prefer not having some inattentive out of shape rider crashing into me. The braking and turn feature could be useful here as a safe guard against other inattentive cyclists who may be riding too close. In my neck of the woods seems to be the biggest emerging danger!

There was some moaning about the turn signals, but I like the feature as it shows up on both the front and back of the helmet. And looks a lot more visible in the rain and dark of the winter than just a hand signal (of course assuming no one saw your signal anyway, is probably still the best).

My only complaint is MORE CRAP ON THE HANDLE BAR. I my dream world it should be a small button on my brifter, right next to the other button which activates the hidden motor so I can quickly drop the young roadies on a training ride while on my way to work. Getting dropped by an old middle aged commuter with panniers never feels good.

i just think this is a great idea im 100% behind this you have to take your saftey into your own hands!!!!!

This can only help improve road safety. In the video the rider uses hand signals in conjunction with the lights. So I don’t really understand the argument that drivers will not understand what’s happening. Additional safety features like this will only help in removing perceived barriers to average punters riding their bikes on the road.

I won’t be buying one myself, but I completely understand the appeal and there is definitely a market. Good on them, I hope it’s a success.

Great concept and neat integration.

Execution could be a better fit for my personal use case. I run all my lights even in daytime (two or three rear lights on steady glow and a Cat Eye Volt 1200 in HyperConstant mode), and for a long 4-5 hour Sunday morning ride the Lumos battery just isn’t going to cut it. However, as Version 1.0 of a sellable product, this ticks all the right boxes.

My only real questions are:

1) How well-ventilated is this helmet? Obviously the electronics and LEDs have to take up space on the helmet, space that might impede airflow over the head. This obstruction is most obvious on the helmet’s rear center.

2) Is there a “brake light only” mode, where the helmet’s rear LEDs stay off until the accelerometer detects deceleration – then come on as a brake light? That simple change would cater to those of us who would like the brake light function in the daytime, but would rather not burn through the helmet’s battery life.

@rider_x Except that with a car, everyone knows where to look for a turn signal. No one is looking at a bike for a turn signal.