A few years ago, a video about an innovative product quickly went viral.

This innovation was called Hövding, which is a bicycle helmet safety airbag — cyclists can wear it around their necks. The device is quite miraculous, inflating the airbag rapidly at the moment of impact in case of a collision.

The process of how the bicycle helmet safety airbag works is fascinating. However, if it weren't for its activation in life-threatening situations, it would be rather comical — when an accident occurs, the motion sensors embedded in the collar detect abnormal movements of the cyclist's body and immediately send a warning signal to the airbag module, which then deploys the airbag from above the back of the head, shaking like a giant inflatable hand over the cyclist's head.

But how effective is it in protecting the brain from traumatic injury?

Researchers at Stanford University believe the answer is "very effective."

They conducted experiments by attaching both the bicycle helmet safety airbag and traditional bicycle helmets to dummy heads. These heads were then suspended several feet above a hard surface and released. Sensors on the heads measured changes in acceleration. The researchers found that the safety airbag could reduce the impact of acceleration by five times.

This means that the bicycle helmet safety airbag is much more effective in protecting cyclists from concussions compared to regular bicycle helmets. Traditional helmets are designed to prevent skull fractures rather than concussions. However, concussions can occur due to the rapid change in acceleration. Your brain hits the inside of your skull as it twists and stretches, causing chemical changes in the brain, which can be serious and may not recover quickly.

A standard bicycle helmet cannot mitigate the impact of acceleration, but an inflatable helmet can. The airbag absorbs some of the impact force, greatly reducing the force of acceleration. The researchers concluded that the likelihood of injury for someone wearing a safety airbag bicycle helmet is eight times lower than for those wearing standard bicycle helmets (defined in the study as helmets made of expanded polystyrene foam).

According to Stanford University researcher David Camarillo, this could help address a very tricky problem. According to Camarillo citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cycling is more likely to cause concussions than any other sport (according to CDC research, this is especially true for those aged 19 or younger). This also means that cycling is even more dangerous than playing football.

There are more cyclists than participants in contact sports, so purely in terms of numbers, your chances of getting a concussion are even higher. Regardless of whether this device is dangerous, the idea of protecting cyclists from concussions is great.

Does this mean that the bicycle helmet safety airbag is better than a regular bicycle helmet?

It's not clear yet. They do prevent concussions, but additional testing is needed to see if they can also effectively prevent skull fractures. In many countries, they are not legal substitutes for traditional helmets. To legalize them, we need to establish basic standards that airbag helmets must meet.

Furthermore, safety airbags need to undergo rigorous testing to ensure that deployment mechanisms work quickly and safely in appropriate circumstances. If you bump into something on the road or just lean a little, you wouldn't want a bicycle helmet safety airbag to deploy — Hövding is a disposable product and cannot be reused multiple times. You have to ensure that the safety airbag is reliable. Failure would be tragic.

Today, you may see bicycle helmet safety airbags in some European countries like Sweden. But it may take some time for this technology to reach other parts of the world.