A disposable bike helmet made of paper has won James Dyson's international inventors' competition.
The unlikely sounding product, designed by 29-year-old Isis Shiffer, offers an inexpensive option for users of city bike-share schemes who want to ride with protective headgear.
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Shiffer, a graduate of the Pratt Institute in New York who describes herself as a "compulsive tinkerer", came up with the idea while studying in London and Tokyo.
"I do all my exploring by bike but I don't like riding in those cities without a helmet," she said. "I wondered why there was no inexpensive option for people who want to use a bike-share scheme."
The James Dyson Award runs in 22 countries. As the winner, Shiffer will receive £30,000 from Dyson to develop her design further. She said: "I was astonished to win. I have an art background, so the engineering I do tends to be intuitive and then I fill in the gaps by reading a lot of books."
She hopes to sell her invention from vending machines at bike-share stations for $5 per helmet.
A study of 64,000 cyclists conducted by the University of New South Wales found that wearing a helmet could reduce the risk of serious head injuries by almost 70 per cent.
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