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" A motorcycle helmet isn&amp;#039;t the kind of gear a tech geek dreams about. They are safety devices that have remained largely analog, save for a handful of Bluetooth add-ons. That&amp;#039;s about to change. &amp;quot;Riders want vertically integrated tech, and they want something that feels seamless and helps them enjoy what they&amp;#039;re doing more,&amp;quot; says Skully Helmets founder and CEO Marcus Weller. He hopes to realize that vision later this year, when Skully plans to release a revolutionary full-face helmet. The Skully AR-1 will hit the market for an estimated MSRP between $1000 and $2000.  The helmet&amp;#039;s breakthrough tech is a small 180-degree camera mounted to the central spine of the helmet, along with the hardware and rechargeable battery to run it for 9 hours. Together, they power and populate a small head&amp;#039;s-up display (HUD) in the right side of the rider&amp;#039;s field of vision with a perfect picture of what&amp;#039;s happening behind you. Riders will see far more with far less eye movement. The HUD can also display navigation visuals, which will be one of the system&amp;#039;s cornerstones. And, of course, the Skully handles Bluetooth integration to stream your phone calls and music into the helmet\u2014though Weller says the system won&amp;#039;t overwhelm the rider. &amp;quot;We want to honor the motorcycle experience,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;We don&amp;#039;t try to pull you out of the moment and show too much data in the heads up display. We want to effectively enhance that moment.&amp;quot;      Developers are now getting their hands on the Skully, and Weller predicts they will build a host of apps with the helmet&amp;#039;s tech. He envisions a navigation-based app in which you&amp;#039;d be able to optimize running your errands based on preferences such as traffic, speed, or possibly including a scenic ride. Say goodbye to those hard-to-read road maps many riders carry on their tank bags; say hello to in-helmet nav. Just a dream three years ago, the prototype Skully AR-1 won the SXSW Accelerator Award in the wearable technology category this past March. Since then, tens of thousands of requests to be a part of the helmet&amp;#039;s beta testing have flooded the company&amp;#039;s website. When Skully does that testing this summer, it will analyze feedback from real-world riders and design improvements back into the helmet. &amp;quot;We like to think that our products are always in a state of snapshot,&amp;quot; Weller says.  If the helmet, and the technology behind it are as popular as many are expecting, it could mean an end to motorcycle maps and rear view mirrors and perhaps the beginning of a motorcycle tech revolution. Weller sees his helmet merging with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technologies so that cars could become more aware of bikes. &amp;quot;What you&amp;#039;ll see in the future is a digital force field around the rider,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;Our hope for the future is that this helmet will become the instigator or the catalyst to really revolutionize the industry.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/motorcycles/a10620/coming-this-fall-the-augmented-reality-motorcycle-helmet-16836594/>