Ergonomic design of an active alert helmet

A novel ergonomic design of a motion sensitive motorcyclists' helmet is presented in this paper. The helmet which equipped with motion sensitive system has been previously invented for measuring the kinematic changes of the vehicle. That system could generate the warning message in the case of a high-risk change, and actively alert the danger to the riders in the surrounding area. By activation of an emitted LED light source, the early-alarm function provides better protection of the motorcyclists, and reduces the risk of the traffic accidents. The ergonomic survey is prepared as a prerequisite for market prior-run. Based on the theory of semantic differential, various types of helmet were surveyed first and clustered into groups according to their characteristics. By market questionnaire survey, a set of highly rated connotative meaning adjective terms were selected for the ergonomic design. Four types of tentative designs were therefore selected, and a set of final prototypes were proposed after modifications which were made according to evaluations and feedbacks from the users. Considering both the ergonomics factors and aesthetics issues, the prototypes offers a promising future market.