Air bags and haute couture come together in the Hövding Invisible Helmet ($528) for bicyclists. Though this Swedish product seems ridiculous at first, says The New York Times, "it was perhaps inevitable that the helmet evolve from hair-flattening safety necessity to accessory," given the rising number of bike riders in metropolitan areas. Deflated, it merely looks like a jacket collar or plush scarf. However, attached sensors detect sudden changes in velocity or angle that indicate an accident. That's when it inflates within a tenth of a second to resemble "a futuristic headpiece in a Björk music video."
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