Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Rear View Mirrors-Periscope Method Possible?

Good day all,

I've dabbled w/rear view mirrors on and off over the years, mostly glasses and helmet mounted ones. I've always desired less knobs & things hanging of my bike so avoid handlebar types.

I've never liked the FRED-factor of most commercial glasses mounts(except the eyeglass dots) and even my own carefully shaped and wire arm shape experiments have left something to be desired.
The principle problem has ended up being backpacks & gear I carry often occlude the view! There just doesn't seem to be a cure-all.

Now, after seeing several of the state-of-the-art flight helmets for F-22, F-35 and Eurofighter jocks, with integrated HUDs and stereoscopic cameras I've gotten the inspiration.http://www.boyplankton.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/new_helmet.jpg

Has anyone ever tried a persicope-type mirror that could reflect an image facing back from your helmet and bounce it in an arcing path along one's helmet contour, to hang it down over one's brow, like the flip down target sensors seen in sci-fi movies or as the current jet jock equipment carries?

I've been sketching prototypes to try and get nec. angles to do this. I'm not quite sure what kind of plastics or materials I'll use for a test bed but it will have to be pretty stiff to maintain a light path. I'm hoping a narrow, box strip that can thread thru my helmet air vents without requiring much material to be removed.

Anton

Sorry about the picture size! How do I reduce it?

Anton

someone introduced a helmet very much like you describe about 7 or 8 years ago. I have not heard much about it since. It looked interesting in that it routed the optics over the top of the helmet. All you had to do was look up with your eyeballs and you would see what is behind you. The downside that I could see from pictures was that all the optics took up all the space that would normally be allowed for vents ... no airflow, yuck :( I have no idea what the weight was.

go find some junk binoculars at a flea market or several and mygyver up your own
system of prisms

or for 1.5 million and a 1 amp power suppy u can haz that fighter helmet

Good day all, ...

Has anyone ever tried a persicope-type mirror that could reflect an image facing back from your helmet and bounce it in an arcing path along one's helmet contour, to hang it down over one's brow, like the flip down target sensors seen in sci-fi movies or as the current jet jock equipment carries?

I've been sketching prototypes to try and get nec. angles to do this. I'm not quite sure what kind of plastics or materials I'll use for a test bed but it will have to be pretty stiff to maintain a light path. I'm hoping a narrow, box strip that can thread thru my helmet air vents without requiring much material to be removed.

Anton
The Reevu helmet (apparently out of productionn) had an over the top periscope mirror system. See several posts, including photos of it, in this thread LINK (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=282065&highlight=helmet&page=2) including a link to the company which still makes mortorcycle helmets with rear view LINK (http://www.reevu.com/). You could also search these forums (or the web) for ReeVu.

Edit: Diagram of the Reevu mirror system on their web site LINK (http://www.reevu.com/rv.asp).

Sorry about the picture size! How do I reduce it?

Anton

Large Pics are Best

your pic only looks big. At almost 168k it is a fairly light file for even dial-uppers to download quickly.

Rather than relay optics mounted on the helmet which will add weight and might have a counter-intuitive relationship with head motion, just mount a rear-facing miniature camera (they are incredibly small) to the seat post and either a small LCD on your stem (brightness will be an issue) or one of the miniature eyeglass mounted LCD displays. Of course the good news about an HMD such as you've pictured is that your head and face would be protected at ejection speeds in excess of 450 knots. Can't speak for the rest of the bod.

The Reevu helmet (apparently out of productionn) had an over the top periscope mirror system. See several posts, including photos of it, in this thread LINK (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=282065&highlight=helmet&page=2) including a link to the company which still makes mortorcycle helmets with rear view LINK (http://www.reevu.com/). You could also search these forums (or the web) for ReeVu.

Edit: Diagram of the Reevu mirror system on their web site LINK (http://www.reevu.com/rv.asp).

I have the Reevu mirror and right now, it's collecting dust. They no longer make a bicycle helmet anymore and now focus on motorcycles. However, their bicycle helmet wasn't far off and truly needed research and development. I like the whole concept in general but these were the problems.

1. Reevu one size fits all --- The company didn't have helmet sizes and I have a big head. Needless to say their one size fits all ment my head was always hurting!

2. Can you say HOT! --- Well, it wasn't that hot but the lack of many vents made it less than desirable during summer days.

3. The mirror was small --- The pictures in the ad were deceiving to say the least. The actual mirror was about one inch long and a quarter inch wide!

4. The image was dark --- I found this troubling because in broad daylight, the image was dark making it hard to see. At night, the helmet was useless.

5. I was left cross-eyed! -- LOL! It was kind of strange the way it worked but there were two reflector systems inside the helmet so my left eye was looking at the right side of the road and vice versa. It just did not work.

I still think the helmet had potential and I hope someone picks up the patent and runs with it. It's an idea that truly needs to be developed. In the mean time, I'll keep my Take A Look mirror.

If you design your own, be aware that you are likely to have an inverted view. According to my scratch pad sketches, if you have an even number of mirrors, the image will be inverted, but an odd number of mirrors ought to get it rightside up.

I like the idea of a camera, except that the display technology hasn't miniaturized as much as the cameras. Mounting a small, lightweight camera on the back of the bike or helmet is no problem. But a display that is small, light, daylight visible, and good enough resolution to be useful is going to be tougher.

I'd probably buy one of these if they ever come into production:

http://www.cerevellum.com/

Rick

I'd probably buy one of these if they ever come into production:

http://www.cerevellum.com/

Rick
that's pretty slick...