Andrei Artishchev, founder of “Art Business”, announced a client from the USA will purchase the first crush helmet-navigator which was designed by his company.
“Art Business”, resident of the Space Technologies and Telecommunications cluster talked about the success of the crowdfunding initiative: they had a presentation posted on an international crowdfunding site alongside with a short video in English about themselves and proposed a scheme with various options for crowdfunding support relating to their project.
One of them was the following: the first person to transfer USD 1,500 will get the very first finished helmet with navigation. In this way the startup received a sponsor (also the first buyer). On June 13 the amount of USD 1,500 (equivalent in rubles) was transferred from the USA to Live Map, a company which was established for the realization of this project.
Thus, this buyer (who remains incognito) will become the first motorcyclist in the world to receive in about one year a crash helmet with a voice controlled navigator (implementation of maximal number languages is planned, the first being English) and projecting images on visor (windscreen of the crash helmet).
As Andrei Artishchev said, this is a very important and nice piece of news for the company. “A project which was created in Russia turned out to be so innovative and competitive that it was purchased in the USA, at the stage when there is even no ready off-the-shelf prototype, only its details.” During a phone interview Andrei explained that at this point the crash helmet project which received a grant in the amount of USD 300,000 from the Foundation for the completion of the first stage is in the prototype design phase. Software, optic system of image transfer to the viewer, as well as the helmet case are in the completion phase. Thus, the client has purchased a product which is not only incomplete, but has even no prototype. Andrei considers this to be a proof of high level of trust and enthusiasm for the idea. In his phone interview he also answered the question whether traffic police would object to such helmet due to the fact that images appear in front of the motorcyclist’s eyes.
“First, projecting information on the windscreen already exists in some of the most advanced cars, and second, during our negotiations with the traffic police it turned out that their employees who serve shifts on motorcycles also want such helmets: sometimes they have to go through several hundred addresses per day, it is simply unreal to remember all of them”, said Andrei Artishchev (photo below).