While it’s definitely not the most stylish of looks, the Grappa shopping bag can definitely offer additional protection for your head in a pinch. Normally, it works like a regular shopping bag, but in an emergency, you place it over your head, and it ads a layer of durable foam material to protect your noggin. Its makers claim the foam is the same sort of material found in ordinary hard hats. The bags are reasonably priced too, with prices ranging from 980 to 1280 yen (~$12 to $16 USD.)

At least they were nice enough to include a mesh side so you can see out of it. Sure, you might look completely ridiculous if you wear one, but the guy pointing and laughing next to you probably got his brain bashed in by falling debris – and you’ll still be alive to point and laugh at him.

[via DigInfo]

What you need to do during earthquakes is simple: drop, take cover, and hold on. There’s a risk in the second step because you might find yourself crushed to death if the thing that you’re crouching under isn’t very strong or sturdy. That’s where this table designed by Arthur Brutter and Ido Bruno from Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design comes in.

The earthquake-ready desk will be featured in the 2012 Design Bonanza Bezalel exhibition in Milan from April 17 to April 22, and has been nominated for London Design Museum’s design of the year award. It’s more than just a concept design, though. The table is currently licensed by school furniture manufacturer A.D. Meraz Industries Ltd. for distribution in Israel.

The table has been engineered to withstand the impact of objects that weigh up to 1,000 kgs (or 1 ton) from a drop of eight to ten feet. Under ordinary tables, you would probably be crushed along with everything else on top of you. It’s about 2.5 times as expensive as current school desks, but there’s no amount of money in the world that can out-value a human life, don’t you think?

[via Oh Gizmo!]

Traditional body armor is made out of multiple layers of Kevlar with additional metal or ceramic plates for more protection. The problem is that this very thick body armor can weigh as much as 25 pounds adding to load a soldier has to carry in a hot climate leading to earlier fatigue. BAE has developed a new type of body armor that uses what it calls Shear Thickening Liquid that has special particles that are suspended inside the liquid.

The video clip below first shows 9mm bullets being fired into 10 layers of Kevlar combined with liquid armor, then the impact on 31 layers of Kevlar alone.

When a projectile like a bullet hits the liquid, the particles lock together and spread the impact of a bullet over a larger area. That means that body armor using the special liquid can be made thinner and lighter, yet more effectively spread an impact across the surface offering greater protection to the wearer. BAE believes that the new technology could reduce the overall thickness and weight of armor by as much as 45 percent, while increasing freedom of movement.

[via Fox News]

Hopefully you are fully charged when you encounter the bad guy in a dark alley, and you’re not in the middle of lighting up. This device also acts as an LED flashlight, because why not? Charging time is about 10 hours, during which time you won’t be stunning or smoking. By the time you get some of that nicotine, you’ll be shaking so bad that you’ll really want to stun somebody.

The Lighter/Stun Gun combo is available over on Focalprice for about $20(USD).

[via Redferret]

The 2013 Volvo V40 has been outfitted with the first ever production use of Pedestrian Safety Airbags. These special airbags deploy in the event that the vehicle ends up in an unavoidable collision with a pedestrian, potentially protecting both the walker and the driver of the car. The system uses special sensors which automatically recognize pedestrian contact, then fire off a large, wide airbag that covers the lower third of the windshield. It’s also taller along the edges, to reduce the impact against the metal beams along the sides of the windshield.

While it doesn’t really do anything to reduce the initial impact of the front grille, fender and hood, it certainly could reduce the severity of injury – plus make it less likely that they’d end up flying through the windshield. I wonder if it would work with animals crossing the road too. As friends of mine have learned, a 200 pound deer smashing through your windshield isn’t exactly a good thing either.

Personally, I’ve always thought the second your car detects an impending collision, it should deploy a giant protective orb around the vehicle, turning you into an oversize one of those balls you sit on at the gym. Maybe someday that’ll be a standard feature too.

[via egmCarTech]

Yep, that’s right: the  SmartGuard iPhone Case wants to make sure you’re protected.

Aside from protecting your iPhone, it’s got this little compartment on the side that holds a small bottle of pepper spray. So when you find yourself getting mugged or harassed, you’ll find yourself grabbing your phone for two reasons: to call for help and to spray your assailant senseless.

Stay safe, be prepared, and always remember to go home early when you can (my mom’s top three reminders.) You can get the SmartGuard iPhone case from SabreRed for $35(USD), including one canister of pepper spray. Refills go for $20.

[Mashable via The Drum via Dvice]

The All Clear bottle is your standard 750ml CamelBak bottle, that’s made out of Tritan and is BPA-free. The tech is integrated in the cap. It’s got a UV-C light and controller, which can make water drinkable in 60 seconds. The cap uses two rechargeable Li-Ion batteries, that can be recharged via USB. They can handle 80 cycles of purification, and the UV-C bulb is rated for 10,000 cycles. Keep in mind that the bottle doesn’t remove sediment or particles from drinking water, nor can it desalinate salt water from the ocean. Still, it’ll kill germs, and that’s where much of the nastiest waterborne illness comes from.

The CamelBak All Clear UV bottle costs $99 (USD) and is available over at REI.

This folding helmet was created by Patrick Jouffret of the French design studio Agency 360. The helmet is supposed to offer the same amount of protection as a normal helmet, but it can fold up so it’s easily transportable when it’s not on your head. The folded size is small enough to fit in a backpack, purse or bag, which is cool.

Overade was first prototyped in 2010, but it’s supposed to finally go into production in 2012.

[via designboom]

But if I were to take up motorcycle riding, this would be protective gear which would convince me to ride.

Designed by Rejean Neron, the Safety Sphere is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a special bike suit that automatically inflates into a sphere, enveloping the rider and protecting them from injury if they ever go flying off the bike in a crash. The suit inflates to its full capacity in 5/100ths of a second, and fills with compressed air to cushion the impact. The sphere is made up of two layers of fabric, including an inner layer of thin elastic material, and an outer layer of parachute-type cloth. A battery connects to an electric ignition which triggers nitrocellulose canister, inflating the suit in the event of an impact.

Yes, the resulting expanded suit looks completely ridiculous. I’m reminded of that part of Willy Wonka where Violet Beuregarde turns into a blueberry, except this time you’ll be turning into a navel orange. Still, I’d rather look stupid than end up dead. From the looks of things, you might still need some Oompa Loompas to come rescue you after an accident, too.

[via Motorcycle News]

The idea behind Green Footprint is simple. When a fire is detected, a special ceiling fixture releases a glowing flourescent liquid into hallways and offices. As people move around the room, the dye leaves a trail of glowing footprints wherever they walked. In theory, this would lead firefighters to see exactly where people made their exit or if they were trapped along the way.

If you’re wondering how the stuff would glow – the fixture would actually have lights inside of it, charging up the glow-in-the-dark goo all day long until a fire comes along and triggers a temperature sensor.

I know there are already fancy infrared cameras which let firefighters see the heat signatures of humans (and flames), but this seems like a nice low-tech solution which could definitely save lives – assuming that you can actually see the glowy footprints through the smoke.

Green Footprint was an entrant (and winner) of a Red Dot design concept award, and was conceptualized by Chen Hongyu, Tang Ruoqing, Wang Sheng, Zhu Baixuan and Bian Jing.

For example, what should you do when some chemical accidentally gets into your eyes? Or how do you dispense acids when you need to handle them? And a pretty common concern: what do you do when something nearby catches fire from your Bunsen burner?

Well, for the third question, it actually depends on the class of fire you’re dealing with. These types of fires are classified based on what material is burning, and as a result, also require different firefighting agents in order to put them out. But when you’re in a huge hurry, then often you might just rush off to grab a bucket of water or hose it down with the chemical extinguisher without taking some time to identify what type of fire it is and what it needs to be put out completely.

Something that can definitely be of use is the FireFormula, which is a handy and portable firefighting device that contains both CO2 and H2O firefighting agents in different compartments. All you have to do is identify the fire, identify what it needs to be put out, and push the button.

The FireFormula extinguisher is a pretty neat concept design by Sheng-Hung Lee and Chen-Hua Wang, but not without some complications. First and foremost, the amount of each agent will be available in limited quantities because of the size. Second of all, the agents are usually pressurized so they’re able to extinguish the fire in a shorter amount of time.

That said, the FireFormula is a good idea, but it just needs to sort out some of the kinks in order to become a really, really good idea.

[via Yanko Design]

Now, I don’t know about you, but I think having one of those emergency distress buttons would be pretty cool. Not for your home or office or car (although it would be pretty cool to have a button at each of these locations), but for yourself. And that’s essentially what you’ll get with MyRingGuard.

Currently in the prototype stages, MyRingGuard is a ring that’s molded from silicone and plastic that, when triggered, sends off a signal to your smartphone via Bluetooth to fire off a pre-programmed text message to a set group of people, along with your exact location via GPS.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

MyRingGuard is up for funding at Indie Gogo with a target goal of $30,000. Assuming the project is funded, a $39 pledge will get you a MyRingGuard personal emergency button for yourself. Now there’s another way of putting a ring on it.

[via Oh Gizmo!]

The  iSAVE-SC1 vehicle has been dubbed as the “safest electric vehicle in the world” by Humanix, the company responsible for developing it alongside Hiroshima University. It diverges from how cars are usually made, since the airbags are usually hidden in the wheel or dashboard of vehicles, and not “worn” all over on the car’s exterior.

Another thing that makes the iSAVE-SC1 different from most cars is that it only has three wheels instead of the usual four.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It’s obviously a pretty small vehicle, only seating up to three persons comfortably. Humanix plans to sell the first units of the car this November for appx. $10,400 (USD), while mass production has been slated for sometime in 2012.

I don’t know how effective it will be in cushioning the blow upon a real-world impact, but what’s pretty obvious is that this car won’t need any paint jobs at all after a collision.

[via TechCrunch via Oh Gizmo!]

I didn’t have the mind to reason with her then that it was because the peephole was way up there and I way way down here. So that was the last day I answered our door (until I grew tall enough), which wasn’t much of a problem for me because it’s not like I wanted to stop what I was doing every time someone would knock or ring the bell.

But with this premise in mind, designer Hyun-june Yang has come up with the “Who Is Out There?” peephole that’s designed for kids and elderly adults who can’t reach the regular old peephole anymore.

Aside from being a normal peephole, “Who Is Out There?” also integrates a periscope to create a child-friendly peephole. What results is an extended peephole that looks a bit like some pipes welded together, but it could prove to be really useful.

[via Yanko Design]

The new SteriPEN Freedom is charged up with USB power and relies on UV rays to purify water. It’s also a lot more compact than a Brita filter or filtration device, but then again it doesn’t actually filter contaminants. However, in under a minute, after you’ve stuck it into a glass of water, it will have killed off 99.9% of the nasty bacteria, viruses and protozoa hanging out in the water. This makes it quite convenient, especially if you’re stuck in the outdoors.

The Steripen sells for $120(USD) and it’s available right now.

[via PopGadget via DVice]

Scary thought, I know, which is why I think the City Scars app is a very good idea, even though that’s all it is right now: an idea.

The app has a pretty scary (and strange name) but in a way, it does make sense. It tracks down the scars of the city you’re in (scars being crimes, broken street lights, among others) from user-submitted information and pushes alerts and notifications to other users of the app.

Through the app, concerned users can also share “digital witness” information to the authorities about stuff that they just happened to capture and, well, witness.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Yanko Design]

Kent Frankovich, Adam Pettler and Jim Houk designed Revolights to actually replace that crummy little headlight and red taillight you might have on your bicycle with something much more sexy and useful. A normal headlight projects light out from the front of the bike and then down to the ground, but the Revolight actually casts light directly from the rim of your front wheel forward and onto the ground beneath the tire.

Similarly, the top-rear segment of the rear tire illuminates in red, providing a bright and functional taillight.

Revolights use a series of thin LED rings that mount to each wheel rim, and then use a small magnet to provide information about speed and position of the wheel to the system’s controller so it can illuminate the correct bank of LEDs at the right time.

At this point, the Revolight is in the later stages of prototyping and they’re ready to move onto the next stage of development before offering them to the public. That said, the Revolight team has a Kickstarter project going on for the next few days to raise funds for the final prototypes leading up to a product release.

A pledge of $200 or more will get you a set of Revolights once produced, and they’ve already blown through their initial goal of $43,500 by almost $100,000 – so you know there’s a market for these things.

The contraption comes from an aerospace consulting firm called IDEA Inc., started by a pair of former Boeing engineers in 2005. The cheap version of this capsule would seat up to seven people and would cost only about $1,000 (USD). The idea is that when a tsunami is coming that the people can’t flee they can climb inside and buckle in to literally ride the flood waters out.

The device will apparently support up to seven folks for a few hours until the waters subside. A stronger version would sell for $5,000. It’s not clear just how strong the cheap version is. With the giant tsunami that hit Japan the number of cars and collapsed buildings the shelter would have crashed into is worrisome, though. I think this might also do well as a zombie survival shelter.

[via TechFlash]

The system uses a camera to see where the turn lane is and then has three laser scanners in the front of the car. The scanners are able to map the area 100M in front of the car and can sense cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The driver of the car has a HUD that would give warnings if they were in danger of a collision.

If the driver is still rolling into traffic and the systems senses an oncoming car, it will apply the brakes if the vehicle is below 10km/h. I guess that is the threshold to keep the system from hitting the brakes on you if you are trying to zip through traffic. The brake can be cleared by pressing the pedal if the system applies it.

The USB-rechargeable halo can be set to constant-on, or to flash on a regular basis. Sure, your bike might already have LED front and rear lights, but drivers coming from anywhere other than head-on or behind you might not see you – making dark intersections especially dangerous. With this bright yellow halo wrapped around your dome, there’s no way that drivers will miss you. Of course, they might point and laugh – resulting in a different kind of  safety risk – driver distraction. At least they’ll have a good laugh before they crash.

You can find the Angel Bicycle Helmet over at Firebox for £49.99 (appx. $83 USD).

[via 7Gadgets]