YAH – Eyelights
Posted by Mike Werner on Aug 31st 2016
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| You may be wondering what YAH means. It means “Yet Another HUD” with HUD meaning Heads Up Display. Over the year, there have been several projects that put a display inside the biker’s helmet. |
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| It started several years ago (2005) with the first commercial product from a company called SportVue. SportVue was a small device installed on the top edge of your helmet, receiving wireless information from a “blackbox” installed in your motorcycle. |
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| The information was minimal: speed, RPM and gear selected, but it was a start. The product did not sell well, and that was the end of SportVue. But the idea was there. |
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| But since then, many companies have been introducing HUD for motorcycles. Some with a lot of information presented to the jet fighter biker, some with just the important one. Some companies made a lot of marketing hot air to see them go belly-up after a while (does the name Skully ring any bells?). Some companies are still working on the product. BMW for example are seriously looking at providing the HUD functionality in their high-end helmets. |
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| And let’s face it, the idea is actually very good. If you can pipe pertinent information to the biker’s helmet, allowing him/her to concentrate on the road instead of having to look at the instruments and/or GPS, you can save lives (and possibly speeding tickets, but I digress).. |
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| So let’s look at the next motorcycle HUD; Eyelights. |
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| Eyelights is a product designed in Toulouse, France (that’s where the Airbus airplane is made). With help of a startup boot camp, they are in the process of finalizing the design and they hope to bring the product to market by the end of this year. |
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| The unit is inserted inside the helmet and will tell you your speed, traffic information, danger zones (read police radars) and GPS information. You will be able to talk to it (verbal commands) and you can use it with your glasses. The device’s battery will last 8 to 10 hours. |
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| They haven’t finalized its price, but are looking towards €500 - €1000 for the unit and software. They want the device to work with any helmet and any motorcycle. The device will work with iOS and Android smartphones. |
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| Here’s a video on what it would look like if you were riding your motorcycle with the device installed: |
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| So? Would you line up to buy one of these devices? |
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