Advice needed on "smart" helmet

[jshfchtr]

I am in thr planning stages of building a new motorcycle helmet with a wireless headset mounted inside. I created one before, but it was flawed in many ways. I used a 3/4 helmet with a Antena style microphone sticking out thr front, but only at speeds > 50mph could I be heard because of the wind noise. I also had this one hard wired with a 3.5 headphone cable which deteriorated quickly, and was always a nuisance to remember to unplug it every time I got off the bike. The third, and probably most annoying thing was the buttons which I hard mounted into the side of the helmet. I cold either adjust my volume/answer a call or keep my hands on the handle bars. Very unsafe and the adjusting wind noise meant I would either have music I could barley hear at speed or music blaring at me at stops.

I am now planning on building a full face helmet with the same style headset, but bluetooth capable. The helmet build itself I can manage, but I would like to either buy or build a remote control panel that I could operate with my right hand while keeping it on the handlebars and so far I've come up dry on ideas.

The perfect set would be the helmet syncing with my phone as soon as I placed the phone in its dock and turned the key on the bike. I would then turn on spotify to a Playlist and be able to adjust the volume or answer a call while keeping my hands on the bars.

In short, I need a bluetooth transmitter that has basic controls on the transmitter itself. Anyone know of such a product or offer a better solution for this?

 

[Gryd3]

I am in thr planning stages of building a new motorcycle helmet with a wireless headset mounted inside. I created one before, but it was flawed in many ways. I used a 3/4 helmet with a Antena style microphone sticking out thr front, but only at speeds > 50mph could I be heard because of the wind noise. I also had this one hard wired with a 3.5 headphone cable which deteriorated quickly, and was always a nuisance to remember to unplug it every time I got off the bike. The third, and probably most annoying thing was the buttons which I hard mounted into the side of the helmet. I cold either adjust my volume/answer a call or keep my hands on the handle bars. Very unsafe and the adjusting wind noise meant I would either have music I could barley hear at speed or music blaring at me at stops.

I am now planning on building a full face helmet with the same style headset, but bluetooth capable. The helmet build itself I can manage, but I would like to either buy or build a remote control panel that I could operate with my right hand while keeping it on the handlebars and so far I've come up dry on ideas.

The perfect set would be the helmet syncing with my phone as soon as I placed the phone in its dock and turned the key on the bike. I would then turn on spotify to a Playlist and be able to adjust the volume or answer a call while keeping my hands on the bars.

In short, I need a bluetooth transmitter that has basic controls on the transmitter itself. Anyone know of such a product or offer a better solution for this?

Well, as far as bluetooth is concerned, the only reliable method I can think of for control is using a bluetooth device as a 'Proxy'.

It will pair to the phone, and will receive audio. This will also allow the multi-media keys to control music playback and call control. I would encourage you to place the controls on the left hand so you don't have to worry about adjusting the throttle hand position to reach a button. (This is why bluetooth helmets have the controls on the left-side)
From here, your helmet can pair to the 'Proxy' on the bike to receive audio.
This is not ideal... of course the other option is to use a different wireless transmitter/receiver pair between the helmet and bike.
I may be wrong, but I am unsure if you can simultaneously connect to any more than one Bluetooth media device at a time. (You can be paired to numerous, but connecting is a different story) IF you can connect to two media devices at a time, perhaps one media device can control playback on the phone to be heard on the second media device.

This would require a little playing to confirm.

 

[jshfchtr]

I had a thought last night about those IPhone headphones that have the microphone and volume buttons on their cables. I found an article about splicing a volume control wheel from one of these headphones into another set. Could I splice one of these volume wheels on a 3.5 cable with male ends at each side? I could use a basic AUX cable going from my phone to a bluetooth device with a 3.5 input with the volume wheel between them. This won't give me call functions, but will give me volume and mute functions. It makes sense to me in theory, but I don't know about actual application.

 

[jshfchtr]

Ive never heard if a proxy style set up as you suggested but i will research it later. I do like the idea of multiple devices connecting though, but could sacrafice this for single rider use. As for the right vs left handle bar placement, I lean more towards the right side because I am right handed, but if ever get a prototype built then I will experiment with the left side.

 

[shrtrnd]

I'd pay attenion to he 'actual application' or 'practical' sde of this in your consideratios.
You'd want to make sure whatever you use, doesn't over-power the traffic around you for your own safety.
I was thinking about the VOX-type applications, where input is squelched until your system actually detects a signal.
You would think somebody has already come-up with something for what you want. Something that allows you to hear road traffic, but kick's-in for an incoming radio signal.
I realize wind-noise is the real problem here.
Is it feasible to have some type of flexible assembly mounted inside the helmet, that actually contacts the sides of the skull when you put it on? Something that transmits the signal through vibration,?
A conventional speaker cone moves air to transmit sound, and that's being over-powered by external wind-noise above 50mph. Maybe uising the vibration of the speaker coil signal directly, without moving the air from a speaker cone
might work? Don't know, just a thought.

 

[Gryd3]

I had a thought last night about those IPhone headphones that have the microphone and volume buttons on their cables. I found an article about splicing a volume control wheel from one of these headphones into another set. Could I splice one of these volume wheels on a 3.5 cable with male ends at each side? I could use a basic AUX cable going from my phone to a bluetooth device with a 3.5 input with the volume wheel between them. This won't give me call functions, but will give me volume and mute functions. It makes sense to me in theory, but I don't know about actual application.

It makes absolute sense that this can be done. I am unsure if they work with anything other than iPhones though. (For volume control and song skip)
You have a couple options:
-Using an iPhone headphone cord, you would have access to 3 buttons. Volume control and song skip would be possible. (Unknown if support for non-Apple products)
-Using a generic inline volume control for headphones would give you a simple volume control with a volume wheel. (Would work with any device)

Ive never heard if a proxy style set up as you suggested but i will research it later. I do like the idea of multiple devices connecting though, but could sacrafice this for single rider use. As for the right vs left handle bar placement, I lean more towards the right side because I am right handed, but if ever get a prototype built then I will experiment with the left side.

The proxy style setup would be more of a generic approach, but would allow you to put your phone in a pocket and still connect to the handle bar controls. If you can pair two bluetooth media devices at a time, perhaps you can avoid relying the audio through the proxy and simply use a small bluetooth keypad for next/prev/Volume.
(I can try this at home)

I'd pay attenion to he 'actual application' or 'practical' sde of this in your consideratios.
You'd want to make sure whatever you use, doesn't over-power the traffic around you for your own safety.
I was thinking about the VOX-type applications, where input is squelched until your system actually detects a signal.
You would think somebody has already come-up with something for what you want. Something that allows you to hear road traffic, but kick's-in for an incoming radio signal.
I realize wind-noise is the real problem here.
Is it feasible to have some type of flexible assembly mounted inside the helmet, that actually contacts the sides of the skull when you put it on? Something that transmits the signal through vibration,?
A conventional speaker cone moves air to transmit sound, and that's being over-powered by external wind-noise above 50mph. Maybe uising the vibration of the speaker coil signal directly, without moving the air from a speaker cone
might work? Don't know, just a thought.

The products on the market already completely dismiss the overpowering of surrounding sound. Existing products typically use two flat speakers that mount to the inside of the helmet for audio, and either use a pair of mics, or a single mic for pickup from the rider. The dual mic setup allows noise cancellation to allow the rider's voice to be easily heard by the caller/callee. When listening to music, it's entirely up to the rider to pick a volume that suits the riding conditions. (I listen to music on the highway, and adjust the volume lower while in town.)
I think that using bone conduction for audio would be a nice idea though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_conduction

 

[jshfchtr]

Saftey is a large concern of mine, but for the moment I would like to get a prototype built with the basic music and call functions, then expand on the helmet for noise canceling and traffic noise.

I found another option which I believe to be the best so far. I realized I am basically creating steering wheel controls for a motorcycle, and with a Google search I found this:
http://www.cnet.com/products/isimple-bluclik/

Basically this device pairs with my phone and becomes an external keyboard so I can operate basic controls from this. I am going to try and get this device to pair with my phone and mount it to the handlebars, then run a 3.5 aux cable from the phone to a separate bluetooth transmitter which will send the audio signals to the headset (hopefully). I am not sure, but I believe I could use my Tasker app to change certain functions of this remote controller, such as if I were to hold the pause button for more than a second it would mute the volume. It will take some tinkering, but unless someone sees a flaw in this I believe this is the easiest solution.

 

[shrtrnd]

Yeah. I thought he noise-cancellation issue would be a prevelant problem that manufacturers would have compensated for by now. I can imagine jshfchtr's annoyance about wind-noise above 50mph though.
I would hope he gets a workable solution from advice here.

 

[Gryd3]

Basically this device pairs with my phone and becomes an external keyboard so I can operate basic controls from this. I am going to try and get this device to pair with my phone and mount it to the handlebars, then run a 3.5 aux cable from the phone to a separate bluetooth transmitter which will send the audio signals to the headset (hopefully). I am not sure, but I believe I could use my Tasker app to change certain functions of this remote controller, such as if I were to hold the pause button for more than a second it would mute the volume. It will take some tinkering, but unless someone sees a flaw in this I believe this is the easiest solution.

If that devices merely pairs as a keypad, then you can pair a Bluetooth headset as well. No need for an additional Bluetooth device.

I do like that idea though. Simple and pre-made.