Smart helmet maker Lumos is raising the bar on its own award-winning design with a new high-tech helmet that offers front and rear lights, turn signals, and even technology that responds to your basic hand gestures.
"Our mission is to make it really easy for you to stay safe so that you can make riding a bigger part of your everyday life," Eu-wen Ding, co-founder and CEO of Lumos Helmet, told Cheddar on Tuesday.
The Matrix is the newest helmet in the Lumos product line and started selling in select Apple stores worldwide on Tuesday. The headlights are 2.5 times brighter than the original, it has animated turn signals, and a corresponding app.
"The back is now a whole matrix, which is where the name comes from, of LEDs so it can make animated signals as well," Ding said.
"Wouldn't it be great if somehow the helmet could sense when you are giving your hand signals and just activate it automatically?" he asked. So that's what the company set out to create, with the new helmet featuring Lumos Gesture Recognition technology, which allows turn signals to be synced to an Apple Watch and respond to riders' basic movements. The advanced app offers a library of animations to choose from.
The high-tech helmet company is responding to the rise of personal transportation options like bike and scooter sharing. "When I started the company, like, four years ago, none of that was around, and very quickly in the last 18 months this whole microbility segment has skyrocketed like crazy," Ding said.
However, as more people get on e-scooters and bikes, cities often fail to keep up with the infrastructural changes needed to keep people safe.
"I think more people would do it if there was better infrastructure, if it was safer," Ding noted. "Hopefully, as more people get on the roads, the city will start paying attention to that stakeholder and start investing in infrastructure."
