HelSTAR Will Make Riders More Visible

David R. Werner has no doubts that his invention will be useful. “We’re going to make a serious difference in motorcycle visibility,” he predicted when we chatted last week by phone. “We’re going to save lives.”

Werner heads a Pittsford, NY company called Third Eye Design. His creation is called HelSTAR. It’s a battery-powered light that attaches to the back of a rider’s helmet and which illuminates whenever the brakes or a turn signal get used.

Werner has spent five years and $600,00 developing the technology for HelSTAR. He’s now using a Kickstarter campaign to raise the remaining $250,000 that’s needed to go into production.

While others have tried the concept before, Werner’s HelSTAR is the most advanced. “The reason we’re so different is because we spent five years building the technology. (It) is so energy efficient that we don’t have to put a switch on our system. There’s more intelligence in our helmet unit than there was in a computer 10 years ago,” he said.

The wireless system relies on a transmitter and a receiver, and it runs on batteries that will last an entire season. Like a smoker detector, when battery power runs low, the unit will issue an alert. What makes it more user-friendly is whenever the rider wearing a HelStar gets on his or her bike, the system simply kicks in.

Having done a prototype and engaged in field testing by actual riders, Werner is confident that he’s eliminated any potential objections to the HelSTAR unit, such as added weight to the helmet or wind noise. “The unit that we piloted is a lot heavier than the one going to market,” he said.

The final version that riders tested didn’t create wind noise or turbulence. “Not a single pilot participant said they could feel it or hear it on the back of their helmet,” Werner said.

The HelSTAR unit was tweaked, though, as a result of the testing, with the top half of the light being red all the way across to match the rear brake light on a bike and the bottom half split into right and left halves and done in amber to match the turn signals.

Werner got the idea for HelSTAR almost a decade when he almost ran into another rider. “I was on my way home from work on a Friday – beautiful, sunny day,” he recalled. In front of him was a van and in-between another rider wearing a brown leather jacket and riding a rust Harley. “The van in front of him was the exact same color. He just blended in,” he said.

Because of his position, the rider blocked the brake lights on the van, including the higher third brake light in the middle. Had the rider in front not turned his head to reveal that third brake light, Werner likely would have plowed into him. “I thought, ‘Wow, we need to have a third brake (light) on the back of a motorcycle. I didn’t realize at the time how difficult it was to make it happen,” he said.

Werner hopes to have the HelSTAR in production and available for purchase in late spring. “We pretty well on track for that,” he said.

The lone stumbling block to a smashing success for HelSTAR might be the price – $179. A reflective vest, which also helps make a rider much more visible, costs far less.