Wearable airbag

Fact or fiction: The only reason I don’t ride a bike in the city is because I don’t want to get helmet hair. Answer? Fiction. I don’t ride a bike because I’d kill myself.

But the whole helmet-hair fear is not without merit – who wants to step into a business meeting donning a replica Lego man wig? No one, that’s who. So, for all you fashion- and eco-conscious peddlers, Swedish designers Anna Haupt and Teresa Alstin came up with the HÃ¶vding (Cheiftan) – it’s a collar containing a folded airbag, that hides neatly and discreetly under a jacket or scarf. Genius!

You’re asking yourself… how does that work??? Before an accident, an accelerometer and gyro register abnormal head movement and trigger “gas-generators” that fill the bag. Presto! Instant cushioning for your skull.

The Cheiftan was 6 years in the making, and during that time the developers modeled every conceivable type of bike accident – even fatal ones – to make sure air bag would deploy at the right time (in stead of say… when a cute hipster walks by and you “break your neck” trying to catch a look). Slaloming around road cones? Won’t trigger the airbag. Flying over your handle bars? Safety in a bag. An air bag!

Alas, this wonderful product won’t be available until 2011… but go ahead and learn more about it at their website.