A bike helmet with turn signal lights will make rides a whole lot safer

Cars have indicator lights for better safety — so why don't bicycles too? The Lumos helmet is a helmet for cyclists with a prominent red brake light, as well as yellow left and right turn signals, like what you'd see on motorised vehicles. Created by Jeff Chen and Ding Eu-wen, the Lumos is currently getting built, after a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $800,000 last July. The helmet is controlled through a small wireless remote that you clip onto the handlebar. 

IMAGE: YVETTE TAN/MASHABLE

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

The remote also contains an accelerometer that triggers the brake lights when it detects a quick deceleration:

IMAGE: YVETTE TAN/MASHABLE

via GIPHY

The helmet also comes with an iOS app, which monitors both its battery level and the remote control's, and notifies you if you need to charge the helmet. An Android version is in the works, the company said.

IMAGE: NG YI SHU/MASHABLE

The helmet retails for $169.

Ding said it started out as a side project for the two, who were at Harvard as engineering students. "We were just tinkering on the side making something we thought was cool, and we were just making it for ourselves.

"Only after literally hundreds of people told us they would buy one if we made it did we start considering it seriously."

But like many a Kickstarter project, product delivery had to be delayed.

Ding explained that the company did have a product ready in the timeline promised, but feedback from beta testers indicated that the company needed to work on the helmet's fit, and refining parts of its cosmetic design.

They also had to refine the accelerometer's sensitivity so that it wouldn't falsely trigger the brake lights.

"There were just a lot of small things that put together made the product look very unfinished," he said.

And in the future, the Lumos could work in a ride tracker to add activity data to workout apps. Ding noted that aggregated ride data could even go further in helping cities and cycling communities plan better routes.