Gizmodo: air bag

Impact Jackets (a.k.a. Wearable Airbags) Finally Make It to the US, and Are Immediately "Tested"

blongo3 — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:20:10 EDT

Impact Jackets, originally designed to save Japanese construction workers from long falls by inflating prior to impact, have finally made it to the United States. Only instead of construction workers, it's our motorcyclists that seem to be reaping the benefits. And it didn't take too long to see some results.

Joeseph McPhatter of Baltimore, MD, recently was cruising along when he was abruptly cut off and wrecked his motorcycle. Upon crashing, McPhatter was launched over 100 feet at a rate of 140MPH and instantly became the Impact Jacket's first "real world" motorcycle crash test. Medics claim that if McPhatter hadn't been wearing the Impact Jacket, his injuries, which amounted to a few sore ribs, would have been severely worse—if not fatal. Thanks, Impact Jacket! [Baltimore Sun via Core77]

Sony Issues Airbag Patent For Mobile Devices

Mark Wilson — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 09:32:52 EDT

To better protect hard drives in mobile devices, from laptops to cameras, Sony has issued a patent on a mini liquid airbag. And here's how it works.

A water or silicon oil bag surrounds the drive like a skin. "Biasing units" connect the hard drive to the bag, maintaining the drive's orientation under duress. Meanwhile, the bag has an inner lining of irises. When the bag is put under pressure, these irises are pushed closer together, creating more bag resistance by putting more pressure on the liquid.

So as we understand it, the "airbag" never actually deploys, but is always wrapped around the protected device. As long as liquid is being used, we'd love to see this technology tied in to cooling systems. Two birds, one airbag. We're just wondering if they use really tiny dummies for testing.

[itworld via mobilemag]

Yamaha's Crotch Air Bag

Jason Chen — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 23:13:01 EDT

File this one under "Why didn't anybody do this sooner?" Yamaha's prototype isn't quite the first motorcycle airbag, but the first motorcycle airbag for your, er, tender nuggets.

Their advanced safety scooter, designated the ASV-3, has a multi-chambered air bag rigged between your legs, under the seat, to open in the case of a crash, thus protecting your most prized possessions. We're just glad to see that somebody is working to solve the "crotch + 60 mph + handlebars = pain" equation. Go go Japan! – Jason Chen

Safety scooter [Taipei Times via Geekologie]

Motorcycle Airbag

gizmogo — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 09:24:40 EDT

The latest Honda 1800 Gold Wing motorcycle is really turning out to be more like a two-wheeled car. Not only does it have a 60 liter storage capacity (that's like 15 gallons or so), an 80 watt sound system (for blasting on the highway and annoying everyone around you), it even has a fully-integrated airbag. It's unclear on how safe this thing will really be (won't it just knock you back? will a slight bump trigger it?), but if you own one of these things, you'll get bragging rights of having the industry's first motorcycle airbag.

Airbag For Motorcycles ? Yes, Done Deal ! [Bikes in the Fast Lane]