French company Shetters isn't satisfied with photochromic motorcycle visors that take a couple of minutes to go from clear to tinted, so it's striking out on a line of solar-powered, LCD-tinted visors that flick from clear to tinted in 0.08 seconds.
The Shetters visors, initially slated for select Arai and Shoei helmets, use a light sensor to figure out when you're likely to want to tint your visor, and automatically and near-instantly tints it using "optically perfect" LCD in a special insert. A small solar panel ensures you never need to bother charging anything.
While it is kind of cool to see the visor flipping from clear to dark, I suspect most folks will do their own flipping when they see the prices: €198 (~US$230) for the motorcycle helmet visors and €219 (~$US$250) for the same tech in a set of sporty looking Shetters sunnies.
Add to that the potential for a ride through patches of dappled shade through trees to end up causing an epilepsy-inducing disco experience. Still, nice to get a glimpse at what might be possible at a more reasonable price sometime in the future. In the meantime, if the Kickstarter campaign is a success and everything goes as planned, backers will start to receive their Shetters visors in September.
The visor is demonstrated in the video below.
Source: Shetters
