Helmets

Engineers at Michigan State University have crafted a new type of liquid foam lining they say can help football helmets better sustain repeated impacts, improving their longevity and the safety of those wearing them.

Some people refuse to wear bike helmets because they find the things to be big, heavy and gawky-looking. The Danish-made Newton-Rider helmet is a bit different, in that it's sleek, thin, and made of semi-soft materials.

We've seen a few different head- and tail-light-equipped bike helmets over the past several years, and some of the things have looked pretty … flashy. The Faro is a bit different, though, in that it has a classier, more refined appearance.

There are now numerous "smart" bike helmets available, most of which incorporate remotely operated LED turn indicators. Well, if that's the feature you really want, Blinxi lets you add it to your existing "dumb" helmet.

When it comes to monitoring electrical activity in the brain, patients typically have to lie inside a large magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine. That could soon change, as scientists have developed a new version of a helmet that does the same job.

Although there are now several electronics-laden "smart" bike helmets on the market, the Lumos was one of the first. Now its designers are back, with the new-and-improved Lumos Ultra.

When you're changing lanes on a motorcycle while wearing a full-face helmet, performing shoulder checks can be difficult. The Revan "dashcam" system is designed to help, by providing users with a heads-up display (HUD) of their blind spots.

Helmets could soon offer better protection while also being more comfortable, thanks to a new padding material developed by HRL Laboratories. It's claimed to be better than foam at withstanding impacts, while also keeping heads cooler and drier.

​According to research conducted by Canadian materials engineering technologist Albert Beyer, about 68 percent of hockey, skiing and snowboarding-related concussions are caused by impacts to the back of the head. With that in mind, Beyer created The Goose Egg.

This unique British contraption can take a pounding better than pretty much any other helmet on the market, and come back for more, again and again. It's also flexible enough to squash into a more compact shape for transport, making it a real oddity worth a closer look.

​If cycling helmets weren't so bulky to carry around, it's entirely possible that more people would actually use the things. That's why British cyclists Josh Cohen and Dom Cotton invented the Cyclo, which features a unique "flipclip" design.

We're seeing more bike helmet makers move away from foam in favor of higher-tech materials that provide better head-protection. The big boys have now gotten in on the act, as Trek has announced its WaveCel helmets – they're said to be 48 times more effective than foam, at preventing concussions.