Although there are some in development. But would you be interested in something like this?

    • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Tl:dr he has no real point.

      He just lists two failed smart helmet startups, then talks about a successful smart helmet that doesn’t use a full HUD but uses an LED light bar. The only actual point he makes is that it’s hard to make a display that’s visible in the sun.

      It’s also a motor cycle channel so he makes points like “why not use your mirrors or built in dash” which is not really applicable to cyclists, eskaters, EUC users, etc.

      • DracolaAdil@kbin.social
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        7 months ago

        Fair reasoning but I still think Ryan is in the right path.

        He is right that shoving a holographic display and the computer bits in the helmet either makes it bulky, heavy, and useless or you’d be paying up the wazoo for what is an engineering exercise.

        A simpler interface that solves current problems in my opinion would be much better than trying to make an Ironman helmet.

  • Tiger Jerusalem@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    To me a hud would be useful for two things, in this order of importance:

    • A rear view mirror right at the top middle of my field of vision, so I could check what is behind without losing track of my front;

    • A GPS.

    Gimme those and I will be throwing money at you faster than my wallet can hold it.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    It’s very dangerous to focus your vision four inches in front of your face while driving. It also takes a second to switch from distance vision to being focused so close, which undermines the whole “at a glance” value of a HUD. Race cars have instrument panels pushed as far away from the driver’s face as possible to make the focal length changes inside your eye easier and faster to switch between. A helmet HUD is the extreme opposite of that.

    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      That is not an issue with anything that is supposed to act as a HUD, as they project the image in such a way that it looks to be further away. They have to, because humans are terrible at looking at something that close to their eyes anyway.
      Google Glass for example projected it so that the image looked like it was 2.5 meters away from your face.

      • fidodo@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I’m really curious what the Google Glass concept would be like with modern technology. I feel like the form factor was poisoned from the backlash at the time, but it seems so much more viable than the stupid bulky headsets.

    • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Lensing. BMW HUDs bounce off a few curved mirrors before reflecting off the windshield so some key details appear 30ft in front of the car. Meanwhile, VR goggles have the screen unfocusably close but due to lenses inside, objects can appear any distance away (and it’s not just parallax, there’s near and far focus)

    • Subverb@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      My Cadillac has a video display as a rear view mirror and it has that issue. With a traditional rear view mirror your focal length doesn’t change much, but in my car your focus has to shift to the mirror 2 feet away.

      It has upsides though, as passengers or objects in the rear seat don’t affect your mirror view.

      Whenever I change vehicles it takes a few minutes to readjust.

    • je_skirata@lemmy.today
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      8 months ago

      What if the helmet had a camera that projected it’s view along with the hud? You might lose some depth perception but at least you could see the road while looking at the HUD.

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Now you’re talking about mix reality VR. Like driving with an Apple Vision Pro on. The technology isn’t good enough for this yet. Maybe someday.

  • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 months ago

    Development costs, lack a research into it, and a lack of companies willing to take on that financial risk for a (mostly) untested market

    Not to mention the costs of such a device with any kind of feature set other than just a glorified screen

    Undeniably there’s been some tech developments that could lead in such a direction but there’s still some substantial hurdles to clear first

  • ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Like a motorcycle helmet? I’d love one, show my speed, maybe a gps overlay, rearview, etc. That’d be great.

      • treadful@lemmy.zip
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        8 months ago

        There’s also the Cross Helmet but I’m super skeptical. Not only are helmets limited-time use, so after a few years it’s trash anyway. But that seems like it would be super distracting for something that requires your utmost attention.

        If I start seeing racers (or some other riding professional) wear them, I might consider it.

        • Alto@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          As with all things, it really is a matter of implementation. Putting telemetry data and such in a place where you only have to flick your eyes at it for a second instead of looking down is a good thing.

          • treadful@lemmy.zip
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            8 months ago

            I mean, maybe? I like the idea. I’ve been following Cross for a while (that’s why I linked it). I want it to work. But this is one case where I don’t want to be the early adopter.

      • ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        That’s cool as hell but $500 is about what I’m willing to spend on an entire helmet not just an attachment. I suppose I’ll keep dreaming. Thank you for showing me that though.

        • admiralteal@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          What really gets me about these expensive gadget helmets is that helmets are fundamentally a consumable good. They can only take so many bangs and bumps, so much sweat, so much all that before they start to wear out. The miscellaneous wear and tear on them. Getting dropped on the ground, banged against things, taken apart and washed and put back together. And for most helmets, once the foam wears out, that’s it. They no longer are fit to purpose as a helmet and should be replaced.

          Back when I rode a motorcycle – which was commuting to work for the better part of 2 decades – I always got the most affordable, comfortable DOT-labeled helmet I could find. Any extra gadgets had to be aftermarket addons that could be portable. Because things like headphones, for me, always lasted 2-3 times as long as the helmet.

          MAYBE a really high-end helmet has a longer service life. But I am skeptical even a really fancy one worn by a commuter using it near-daily would last more than maybe 4 or 5 years. They’re going to have lifetimes like smartphones, for sure. Which means these gadget helms sure do have a high subscription fee to use.

          • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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            8 months ago

            Wouldn’t that make the aftermarket kit much more attractive? Since you could just install it into the new helmet

        • soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz
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          8 months ago

          When was the last time you ever saw a cool new tech product and thought “wow that’s actually cheap”

          Personally I would expect a product like this without favourable economies of scale to be $500.

  • excitingburp@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago
    1. Contrast. You can’t use light to make something dark.
    2. In the HUDs that we do have (Hololens, Google Glass), you typically use something like DLP or waveguides. Both are pretty expensive.

    There are fewer barriers with helmets because they are usually tinted.

    I’m a fan of anything that keeps eyes more forwards/on the road.

  • Toes♀@ani.social
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    8 months ago

    I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of safety rule about looking at a screen.

    • mihies@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      Doing it right can actually prevent organ donations. Like having speed shown without the need to take eyes away from road.

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        a HUD would be more in your field of vision in terms of the X and Y dimensions, but in the Z dimension, depth, in the worst place of all.

        Focusing your eyes an inch away from your face is, unfortunately, taking your eyes off the road. The closer something is to you, the greater and greater focal length change is required. Switching between road vision and 1-inch off your face is much much harder than switching between road vision and 24-inches away from your face (where conventional speed dials are, on the handlebars).

        It’s not just about the time and effort it takes to do this. When your eyes are focused 1inch away, everything on the road will be super blurry. When your eyes are focused 24 inches away, the road will not be as blurry, and it’s easier for your eyes to jump back onto the road.

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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          8 months ago

          That’s not how HUDs work. The image is protected projected so it appears far away.

          • scarabic@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            That’s how VR works but these little nubs on your helmet aren’t projecting directly into your eye. They are projecting onto your visor.

      • admiralteal@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        I dunno, if you’re relying on a number to determine if you are proceeding at a safe speed, I am a bit skeptical you have sufficient mastery of whatever motor vehicle you are operating.

        Just as if you’re relying on a speed limit sign & law enforcement to control what speed drivers go rather than road design feedback, you have insufficient mastery of your engineering trade.

        https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/6/22/facing-an-uncomfortable-truth-about-speed-limits

          • bane_killgrind@kbin.social
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            8 months ago

            He’s right though. Conditions on the road and your speed relative to other drivers really matter. Your visibility forward really matters.

            Also roads suck and are hostile to pedestrians in too many places.

            • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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              8 months ago

              Indeed. But in normal conditions the main thing you want to do is not break the speed limit. In sensible places the speed limits are usually lower than the maximum safe speed.

        • ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          It’s not about going a safe speed, it’s about going a legal speed. I feel safe going 100+ in a 70mph zone when there aren’t other vehicles around but it ain’t exactly legal so I often check my speed, that momentary look down would be prevented with a HUD.

          • admiralteal@kbin.social
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            8 months ago

            Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. Speed limits themselves are only very loosely related to safety (85th percentile rule and civil engineering voodoo science) and the speedometer is more about staying on the right side of the police state when confronted with roads that overwhelmingly signal to drivers that they should be going WAY faster than is legal.

            And even then those speed limits, at least outside of the comparative safety of highways, are almost always set well higher than what is actually safe for the neighborhood or useful to keep the traffic network freeflowing.