Students Develop A Smart Helmet That Alerts Your Family

Each year in India, there are around 1.5 lakh deaths due to traffic accidents. The Indian government has taken many measures to reduce that fatality rate, but there are still many things needed to be done.

To tackle this problem in India, six students have come up with a solution to reduce motorcycle riders' fatality rate. Team Safety Giants has developed a type of smart helmet which would inform family members the location of the rider. In case of accidents, biological parameters are relayed back to the rider's family members.

The team has showcased this product prototype at the event of Smart India Hackathon (SIH) Hardware edition this year. Plus, they won a cash prize of 50,000 Rupees for it.

These students come from the RC Patel Institute of Technology, in Shirpur including Pooja Kadam(21), Rupesh Sonawane (21), Suraj Paliwal (22), Pardeshi Divya (21), Bharat Khairnar (21), and Mitesh Patil (20). The team used to work on an alike project back when they took part in the KPIT competition in Pune when they were still a third-year engineering student. Most of the students are telecommunication major; with only Suraj Paliwal studies computer engineering.

Mitesh Patil (leader of the team) said:

Usually, in an accident, the family members do not get that horrible news immediately. But with this smart helmet, the member of the victim could receive various details like GPS locations, heart rate, eye blinking, alcohol detection, and body temperature as sensors are mounted inside the helmet.

Taking about their innovation, a member - Mitesh Patil said that they have come up with a name for this device - Free Safety Helmet. In an accident, the helmet will send a message to the loved ones of the rider. There will also be a list of nearby hospitals to save time.

The 2nd innovation the team has put into this helmet is speed limit controlling. When the riders pass the permitted speed, the helmet's mechanism will get into action. It will reduce the speed of the bike gradually to the set limit using a connected wire to the accelerator.

The team's long journey to this success saw many hurdles. For example, instead of working on the project, they must participate in placement campus in the final year.

One said that there was a placement camp at the college, and they needed to go there and look for a job. However, they decided to focus on their project instead.

After taking with their family, three members in the team ( Suraj Paliwal, Bharat Khairnar, and Mitesh Patil) decided to participate in the SIH, in Roorkee, arranging their own transportation. Unlike other teams at SIH with 6-8 members, the Safety Giants team only has 3 members participating. SIH nominated Varsa Bapat to help out the group as a mentor.

The three students stayed in IIT Roorkee for 5 days to present the idea and won the award.

In the team, Mitesh worked on the idea, Divya and Pooja handled the application, Suraj took care of the software.  Rupesh worked on editing and video and Bharat handled the hardware. They have applied lots of technologies into this device such as accelerometer sensors, eye IR sensors, body temperature, and heartbeat sensors, etc.

They also said that winning an award at SIH is a massive encouragement. Mitesh told that they want to start their own business. And they are looking for funding at the moment. Making these smart helmets would cost the team the production cost of 1,400-1500 Rupees per unit.

To support and instill innovation among the students, the government has started the SIH back in 2017, and they have concluded recently that this 3rd edition was successful.