Ferrari smart helmet tech patented
High-tech helmet with augmented reality developed for ‘performance-enhancing driver assistance’Ferrari has patented its design and specifications for a high-tech new helmet it is developing to help drivers improve their performance at track days and other motorsport events when behind the wheel of the Italian brand’s road-going supercars.
Published on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, Ferrari says the helmet was invented “for the performance-enhancing driver assistance of a road vehicle” and is especially targeted at inexperienced drivers who are unable to exploit their supercar’s full potential in everyday road-legal environments away from the track.
Essentially, the helmet is able to relay real-time information and superimpose optimal racing lines to the driver via an augmented reality interface in an effort to help them understand “the actual limits of the car” as well as “the ideal trajectories to be followed in order to optimize track times”.
In the patent document, Ferrari said the helmet will assist the driver in the following ways:
- “Determining the current position and orientation of the road vehicle,
- “Detecting a plurality of environmental data concerning the surrounding environment,
- “Detecting a plurality of dynamic data of the vehicle,
- “Determining the current position and orientation of a helmet within the road vehicle, and
- “Suggesting to the driver, by means of an augmented reality interface device, one or more corrective actions to be carried out in order to accomplish a mission optimizing a cost function”.
While it’ll be a new experience for Ferrari drivers, the Prancing Horse isn’t the first to introduce ‘smart’ helmet tech.
Other helmets, including the Australian-designed Forcite motorcycle helmet – while not quite as advanced – integrates a camera system, Bluetooth, dual microphones and an LED display to alert riders if a hazard is predicted.
Several others exist around the world for motorcycle riders, although Ferrari’s high-tech headgear could be one of the first designed specifically for supercar track-day and other high-performance events.
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