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Infrared HUD

danmcdermott

danmcdermott

Member
Member
Back in 09' there were a few articles about Kawasaki integrating "night vision" on the 1400 with several patents to that effect. It seems like this project was canned or at least put on the back burner until the technology becomes more accessible. I know there is the Midnight rider for an aftermarket solution, however has anyone heard about Kawasaki moving forward with IR on the Concours?
 
danmcdermott@me.com said:
Back in 09' there were a few articles about Kawasaki integrating "night vision" on the 1400 with several patents to that effect. It seems like this project was canned or at least put on the back burner until the technology becomes more accessible. I know there is the Midnight rider for an aftermarket solution, however has anyone heard about Kawasaki moving forward with IR on the Concours?
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Concours is done, so I would guess no there won’t be any IR for the 14.

I believe mother KAWA is seeing the demise of the Concours and slumping sales is due to minimal investment and correcting that with a true cutting edge H2 SX SE for 22’ with lots of greatness baked in including I believe IR or very similar.

Nice to see Kawasaki leading in development and really taking the factory boosted machines to the next level.

Hoping the rumors of a boosted larger bike is accurate - although the mill has been on this one for years.. The H2 is just too small for long comfort 2UP, unless each rider is a feather weight..
 
Entering verbose mode :::::

I like the idea of this, but agree with what Ted and Steve mentioned in other threads that creative new development on the part of the rider community (and COG vendors?) could use a boost. Seems like the market has fallen into the early 1900's patent office thinking... "there's nothing left to be discovered". LOL

First step in the process is to see what off-the-shelf system components are available and at what cost, then see where on the machine something can be mounted that doesn't look horrendous but remains functional. The way the windshield is mounted there isn't a whole lotta real estate to work without inside the canopy for a HUD. What would we project onto? Maybe there's a helmet mounted option that can wirelessly tie into FLIR?

Capturing the "use case" and then determining the scope of the project is a time consuming process. Product development is a long game, and then sizing the potential market and price modeling the finished package isn't child's play. It almost seems like this would have to be a one-off PoC (proof of concept) that'll be tweaked over the period of a year (+/-) before it's ready for retail. And by then will the big industrials already have launched something at half the price?

There's enough collective brainpower in COG and the similar FB groups globally to come up with something. But if nothings been done to this point it looks like nobody really has THAT much interest in this type of tech at or near the price point of the competing helmet options. If we had it we'd be one of the only machines on the road with it.

I've seen there are plenty of smart helmets that have the HUD part of the system either market ready or in development:

CrossHelmet X1 features: HUD, Noise Cancellation & much more

The CrossHelmet is the ultimate experience. Tech specs: head-up display, rearview camera, noise cancellation, touch panel, voice chat!
www.crosshelmet.com www.crosshelmet.com
www.argontransform.com

Argon Transform | Smart Helmet HUD Attachment

Argon Transform - World's 1st Dual Dashcam AR Smart Motorcycle Helmet Hud. Navigation, Rear-view Camera, Music & Calls, All In One Riding Essential.
www.argontransform.com www.argontransform.com

Article from 2016 (comments are particularly illuminating)... https://www.cycleworld.com/2016/01/...logy-introduced-at-consumer-electronics-show/

Bottom line is there have been quite a few attempts at making a product like this that doesn't bankrupt the founders, mostly without much success. Bike-HUD, Reevu and Skully are classic examples of how the big players don't like letting the little players onto the ballfield so they wither and die from lack of working capital. Three startups, all three shut down. There is one company that pushed a helmet HUD into production, but it's currently unavailable on Amazon and it doesn't have the FLIR portion of the system:
https://www.amazon.com/NUVIZ-Motorcycle-integrated-navigation-communication/dp/B0753SY382

There's a universal HUD that could be adapted, but it too lacks the FLIR capability:

I've hunted for something like this a lot. After a couple years trying to come up with useful, marketable products (I originally thought of this for snowmobiling at night, and riders not being able to see the terrain in front of them very well while it's snowing hard or they're following other riders). I kinda realized this is not going to be an affordable option for the average Joe Sixpack like me. Not unless there's an industry-level commitment to rider safety and then integrating affordable tech upgrades into the machines so people can just add them into their financing.

And those are just a few of my initial thoughts on the subject.
 
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