The Brief

There are 130 million motorbike riders in India. Unfortunately, the lack of helmet usage results in nearly 90 bikers succumbing to head injuries each day. Cautionary advertising continues to be ineffective. Although motorbikes hold a special place in their riders’ hearts, the helmet is seen as a non-essential part of the biking experience. Since helmet-safety advertisements have proved ineffective, the advertising requirement was deemed to be a behaviour-changing innovation. The challenge therefore was to make motorbike helmets more appealing and hence encourage helmet usage while riding. The solution - We made the helmet a key to the bike!! Our innovation would recognize if the rider is wearing the helmet and if so would wirelessly send a signal to the bike's ignition system to start it. If the helmet is not worn the bike will NOT start. In short, No Helmet? No Ride! Innovative product development has recently caught up in India and lots of startups provide fabrication and circuit design services for new product development enthusiasts.As a small team involving a Creative Director, a Creative Technologist and a Firmware engineer we put together our innovation for the lowest possible cost! The product is ready for production and OEM fitment!

The innovation makes one appear like Darth Vader of the bikes! Wear the helmet and the bike starts. By this we made the helmet a cool gadget than a mandatory menace. Riders who were privy to the idea loved it and wanted to flaunt it by fitting it in their own two wheelers. The product idea was invented for the purpose of communicating road safety and wearing helmets. Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) has been doing print and poster ads and this was a breakthrough to the monotony of print ads. Increased visibility for safety messages and also promised adoption of helmets for sure! BTP was so enthused that they had 7 of their own bikes fixed with the innovation with 600 more to be fitted in the near future! The technology is very simple. It involves copper strips that act as capacitative sensors, a low cost processor (TI MSP430) that detects the presence of skin and a low power TI wireless processor that communicates with a soft relay. The soft relay is introduced in the ignition system of the bike to start the engines as soon as the helmets are worn (no keys no button press!!) Its a proprietary technology developed for this campaign and the IP rests with Circuitects electronics our Hardware partner. The next step is to get the innovation into the two wheelers as an OEM fitment. We will also help existing bike owners to have it rigged in their bike so that they can enjoy the coolness and the safety aspect of the technology. The scale is expected to come through investments from interested parties and also two wheeler giants. We have received more than 150,000 interests and pledges via social media. A two wheeler giant has evinced interests in making our innovation an OEM fitment in their newer bikes! Danone international in India has approached us to have 1000 of their employee bikes to be fit with The Good Road Innovation. We are open to funding but have not actively pursued the same as the interests and tractions currently are quite encouraging!

The technology has the ability to revolutionize two wheeler manufacturing and dispense the need for two-wheeler traffic safety policing in developing nations. The long term interest is in making The Good Road innovation an OEM fitment with all bike manufacturers in India. We are hoping we will have it implemented at the traffic department level so that it percolates into the entire populace. The innovation makes the helmet a cool accessory and not just a mandatory menace. Therefore helmet will not be construed as a unwanted add on to the bikes! Voluntary interests already are pouring in and the youth will adopt the Darth Vader outlook of the good road innovation! Bike manufacturers therefore can make helmets cool and can open up newer avenues of revenue by designing their own models of helmets! As mentioned above Danone International in India seeks to introduce this for their employees. A two wheeler giant seeks to introduce this in their next line of bikes. A senior strategist from American Express has sought to know about funding possibilities. The success and awards the project has bagged, Castrol and BP are keen to further the idea!!!