A mobike helmet that sends SOS alerts

A helmet that protects the wearer from more than just dangerous impact -- it even alerts emergency services if one meets with an accident. Shobha Warrier meets the enterprising IIT-Madras students who designed the gizmo. Photograph: Sreeram Selvaraj.

As a schoolboy, IIT-Madras engineering design student Mohit Mittal saw a man badly injured in a motorbike accident and nobody come to his rescue. When he died for lack of medical attention, Mohit wondered if his life could have been saved had an SOS been sent out to an ambulance or hospital to take action immediately.

"Even today people do not come forward to help an accident victim. That is why I concluded that many lives could be saved if there was some way of informing an emergency service right away," he says.

As he grew up, Mohit learned that 50 percent of road accidents in India involve motorcycles. His scientific leanings got him brainstorming about a device that would help an accident victim in need of urgent attention.

Could the helmet a mobike rider wore send out an SOS signal, Mohit wondered.

Upon enrolling at IIT-Madras as an engineering design student, he began pitching his idea to college mates. Everybody told him that technical assistance was the forte of Rajan Gupta, a third year electrical engineering senior. Mohit approached Rajan and together they designed and decided on the modules to be used for an SOS signal-sending helmet.

"The helmet is fitted with an accelerometer of 5G range that continuously filters the jerk ratio. If the jerk goes beyond the threshold limit, the main board is triggered and it sends signals from the GPS module to the cellphone using bluetooth connectivity. There is a software in the rider's cellphone that sends an SOS to an ambulance and the police. Even if the person is unconscious, the helmet sends signals to the phone which in turn transmits signals to the numbers stored in the cellphone (of a hospital or ambulance), giving the exact longitude and latitude of the place. That is possible because of the GPS," explains Rajan.

The GPS and bluetooth devices were taken care of by Mohit while the cell phone coding and accelerometer were Rajan's responsibility.

It took them three months to come up with the prototype, and they named the helmet the Techmet. "We spent the whole vacation here at the campus making it work."

The cost of the Techmet is around Rs 11,000 to Rs 12,000. But once the technology is ready, the duo think the price can come down to Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 with increase in volumes.

Mohit and Rajan also plan to add more services to the basic model like warning signals. "Warnings can be given for over-speeding and fuel position. The helmet will send messages to the rider that he is speeding and has to slow down. Similarly, he can be alerted on the fuel position too," says Rajan.

It is not only the impact sensor that the young inventors have embedded into the helmet -- there is an alcohol sensor connected to the bike's engine too. If the alcohol content on the rider's breath is high, the sensor sends signals to the engine through radio frequency and the motorbike won't start.

"If the rider thinks he can throw away the helmet and start the bike, that is not possible. Unless he wears the helmet, it won't start -- a microprocessor is connected to the bike also. Also, the rider can't consume beyond a certain level of alcohol if he wants to ride," say Mohit and Rajan.

When they discovered that the helmet was a functional success, the duo were more relieved than ecstatic.

"It had become our responsibility to finish the product before (the annual technological festival) Shaastra 2009, as we had received funding to create the Techmet. When we found that it worked, it was a great load off our minds."

Understandably, Mohit and Rajan are excited to be showcasing their work at the festival. It is the first time a new invention that is not already in production is being showcased at Shaastra. "The concept is new and the product is new, never tried before."

So what future plans? "We will get patents for both the ideas and then try for entrepreneurship. Some of our seniors have become entrepreneurs while they are still in college. We are trying to contact them for advice on how to go about launching our own venture."