In a bid to make Bengaluru traffic more manageable and adhere to the rules, a mechanical engineer in the city designed a helmet model with air conditioning that will help in keeping the head cool in traffic.
The model, designed by Sandeep Dahiya, is a director at an MNC in the city. Dahiya took four-and-half-years and eight prototypes before he achieved what he calls the perfect product, named as Vatankul.
Vatankul works on DC power of 12 volts, which will be supplied through the bike battery.
When asked what made him want to design such a helmet, Dahiya told Times of India that he is a rider himself and when the helmet's visor is down, it becomes suffocating and is very dangerous for the person.
"The sight of two-wheeler riders taking off their helmets and putting them on the fuel tank of their vehicles while waiting at traffic signals is what drove me to design Vatanukul. I am a rider myself. When the helmet's visor is closed, there is no air and it becomes suffocating, though it may be life-saving. So, I decided to come up with a user-friendly helmet," Dahiya said.
Dahiya uses the helmet when he rides his bike from his RT Nagar residence to the office in UB City. He said many people asked him about the helmet and they were surprised when he replied that it was an air conditioning helmet.
Dahiya went on to explain how the helmet works. The weight of the helmet ranges between 800 gms to 2 kgs. The helmet is divided into 2 parts. The first party is in the helmet itself with rubber tubes to carry the cool air and the second portion, which contains a reverse thermocouple control and blower unit and a heat exchanger, is outside the helmet and is supposed to be worn as a backpack by the rider.
The helmet does not require ice or water for cooling. The technology of the heat exchanger is similar to the one used in space vehicles, which contain semiconductors which regulate the temperature.
