When we last heard from Lumos, the bike helmet company had announced a model which was simply equipped with a "smart" tail light. The firm is getting fancy again, however, with its turn-indicating, 360-degree-illuminating, crash-detecting Nyxel.
Currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, the Nyxel features a strip of white LEDs in the front and a strip of red ones in the back. Both strips wrap around to either side of the helmet, ensuring that wearers are visible not just from the front and rear, but also from the sides.
Utilizing an accompanying app, users can set the lights to shine steadily, flash quickly, or flash a bit slower. One USB-charge of the 1,000-mAh lithium-polymer battery should reportedly be good for 3.5, 6.3 or 14 hours of runtime, respectively.
An accelerometer in the helmet triggers the rear LED strip to flash rapidly when the bike suddenly slows down, thus allowing it to serve as a brake light.
What's more, utilizing a wireless handlebar-mounted remote, users can trigger both strips to signal the direction of an upcoming turn. Instead of just blinking on the side of the turn, the LEDs on that side illuminate sequentially – one after the other – like the turn indicators on an Audi.
It's a neat system, although it does have at least one potential shortcoming. If a rider were making a right-hand turn while looking to the left (or vice-versa) to check for traffic on the intersecting road, the flashing right-hand side of their helmet would be turned away from drivers following behind them.
For that reason and others, users should definitely still also use hand signals.
Particularly safety-conscious buyers may wish to go with the optional Quin crash detection module.
Utilizing an IMU (inertial measurement unit), this helmet-integrated device measures movement and force in three directions at once, 1,000 times a second. If the telltale combination of factors indicating a crash are detected, the system will automatically alert an emergency contact via the rider's wirelessly linked smartphone.
A Mips helmet liner, which helps reduce the chances of brain injuries caused by rotational impacts, is also available as an optional extra. Even without it, the helmet reportedly meets NTA 8776, CPSC and EN 1078 safety standards.
Assuming the Lumos Nyxel reaches production, a pledge of US$99 will get you a basic helmet, $129 will get you one with Mips, and $139 will get you one with Mips and Quin. The planned retail prices are $129, $159 and $209, respectively.
You can see the helmet in turn-indicating action, in the following video.
Source: Kickstarter
