HeadSLAM helps you navigate imaginary smoke in well-lit corridors

Ever crawl your way through a smoke-filled corridor to save the life of someone trapped in a burning building? If yes, much respect! If no, us neither, but if ever we do hopefully it's after donning this piece of headgear currently under development by two researchers in Germany. Burcu Cinaz and Holger Kenn (rockers both, no doubt) have created HeadSLAM, a helmet that uses an infrared laser-scanner to penetrate the haze and map out surroundings as its wearer wanders, correcting for inertial disturbances created by the loping, unsteady walk of a bipedal organism, shown in a thrilling demonstration video after the break. It's all very much a prototype at this point (evidenced by the "hardhat festooned with shipping tape" design), and the laptop tether is a bit unwieldy when compared to a cellphone that might manage the same trick from inside a pocket, but within a few years we wouldn't be surprised to see this tech integrated into a trucker hat or maybe even a set of ridiculous headphones. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via NewScientist]

[bob sakamano @ Oct 10th 2008 1:35PM]

AHH!!! a PDF!!! AHHHH!!!

[EricV @ Oct 10th 2008 1:44PM]

Worst video ever! It doesn't explain anything about the product at all! Look at me walking down the hallway!

[HAZE @ Oct 10th 2008 2:00PM]

Wow, I want my 38 seconds back.

Worst.
Demo.
Ever.

[Matthew C @ Oct 10th 2008 5:29PM]

Hey, Engadget, guess what?

I can make a video of my self walking down a hallway in a funny helmet while carrying a laptop too.

And guess what else?

I can talk, too. Or even add music.

[Benson @ Oct 10th 2008 6:11PM]

Yes, but are you creative enough to come up with a name like "HeadSLAM"?

[pball_inuyaha @ Oct 10th 2008 2:00PM]

Wow that was the best demonstrational video I have ever seen. /sarcasm

would be nice to see maybe how it helps you navigate the smoke and haze.

[DirtyVegas @ Oct 10th 2008 2:02PM]

How do you find the helmet in the said smoke?

[HOOPER @ Oct 11th 2008 3:05PM]

Racer X??!!

[DirtyVegas @ Oct 13th 2008 1:21AM]

At your service!

[NickTheRat @ Oct 10th 2008 2:02PM]

i loved it!

[bombastinator @ Oct 10th 2008 2:04PM]

Head slam? I thought that was the standard method. You run around blindly slamming your head into walls until you find your way out. They really need a new name. Really.

[Taylor @ Oct 10th 2008 3:51PM]

Haha, Really good point. SLAM is a robotics term that stands for Simultaneous Localization And Mapping, which is what they are doing, but for a product like this, it really is a bad name, heh.
-Taylor

[Benson @ Oct 10th 2008 6:17PM]

Nah, I think it's actually a good name.

Nobody seriously would take it to mean slamming your head into things, any more than headbang.

And if your product can't take a joke... well, it probably has poor self-esteem. Maybe if it didn't have so much strapping tape showing?

[polymath @ Oct 10th 2008 2:05PM]

Having crawled through burning buildings to save people and put out fires I can this. The end product needs to be something that can be operated using gloves that are little better than oven mits, can take abuse that would utterly destroy the average PDA, and have a display that doesn't interfere with normal fire fighting operations. We have enough crap to keep track of what with burning buildings collapsing on us. Its a great idea, we need all the help we can get, but this thing has to be rugged, small, weigh nothing, and stupid easy to use.

[Benson @ Oct 10th 2008 6:13PM]

Much respect, seriously.

[telepheedian @ Oct 10th 2008 2:06PM]

They really should consider replacing the 15+ incher with a netbook or something...

[POV @ Oct 10th 2008 2:52PM]

or my 5 incher

[IndiaTech @ Oct 10th 2008 3:31PM]

@POV

I think this merits a "That's what she said".

[nxp3 @ Oct 10th 2008 2:10PM]

I have. I use to work at a hospital that routinely have fire drills but one day it wasn't a drill and I was helping to evacuate patients from one side of the building to the next. It turns out that while the building was under construction at the time, the tar they put on the roof had leaked into the elevator shaft, the whole thing was filled with thick smoke and I was just coughing and felt like throwing up. In a smoke filled room, I guess it would help but probably need air as well if one is to get out alive.

[Boarderwoot @ Oct 10th 2008 2:18PM]

Integrate this into a VirtualBoy type of wearable display and attatch it to firefigthers face shields and wow, that'd be awesome. Hopefully the images would be a little more comprehensible than Batman's display.

[Taylor @ Oct 10th 2008 3:52PM]

Nothing ever should be like the virtual boy, the firefighters would die. Much, much better heads up displays are avaliable now...

[Brian @ Oct 10th 2008 2:57PM]

If they want engadget viewers to respect that demo, they better put an asian chick in a bikini and reshoot the same video.

[Deeznuts420 @ Oct 10th 2008 3:20PM]

At least the thick smoke would help hide your goofy looking ass.

[Gomez @ Oct 10th 2008 3:47PM]

That's the hottest fetish vid EVER! Y'know, if you're into that kinda thing...

[Greg StLouis @ Oct 10th 2008 4:43PM]

As a firefighter, it's interesting to see a product like this when we already have similar tools. Many departments already use "thermal imaging cameras" to find hidden fire within walls and beyond smoke, and also to find victims inside a building. My presumption is that this tool maps out the surroundings and in some fashion generates a "map/blueprint" on a nearby pc. It might be somewhat beneficial, but I could think of a few other things that might be more worthwhile developing.

[polymath @ Oct 10th 2008 10:21PM]

Do you think something like this could be incorporated into existing PASS devices? Whatever the end result is I hope the display doesn't weight too much if its helmet mounted. Those things weigh enough as it is. I like your idea of it transmitting data back to a computer and using it for mapping. We have set up that lets us receive video from out TIC's and put it on a tv screen but its just video, no location functions.

[Paul Hildebrandt @ Oct 10th 2008 4:57PM]

I hope they change from shipping tape to duct tape when they release the product. Duct tape is way better.

[Scroter @ Oct 10th 2008 5:46PM]

bwahahaha - yea they should also put a health & fire extinguisher meter in the HUD of the face shield.

[Ryan @ Oct 11th 2008 2:58AM]

Seriously, will this ever save ONE life? What a waste of money on your so called "experiments." Put that money into something more useful. Or just donate it to a hospital or something. You'll save more lives doing that,

[Jon Doe. @ Oct 11th 2008 3:03AM]

PS- I thought I read about something similar for fire fighters something like 8 years ago????

[Jon Doe. @ Oct 11th 2008 3:02AM]

So I'm watching and waiting for something to happen. OK she's walking down the hall. Ahhh I know she is going to hit smoke around the corner....nope. WAIT! the camera is behind her shoulder. I guess we are going to see a virtualized version of what it is like to see with this thing on....nope. Just some chick with a funky helmet and a laptop. I mean for god sake the least they could do is hire some of the women who stand in gaming booths at E3 and the like to demo this thing. the only way they could have made this worse is throw everything in a box and take video of everything in said box for 38 seconds, add Vanilla Ice for the background music, and then put it on the web with in-video advertisements.

[Wwhat @ Oct 12th 2008 8:57AM]

Haha I like the cleverness in thinking up a way to make it even worse, good job :)

[Holger Kenn @ Oct 11th 2008 5:03AM]

See http://www.cubeos.org/blog/?p=36

H.

[Wwhat @ Oct 11th 2008 7:21AM]

My theory is that they used that recently discovered flash vulnerability that allows hackers to turn on your webcam/mic and they use it to make funny videos of us while we watch that demonstration, for the german version of hidden camera.
At least it makes sense then.

[ED @ Oct 12th 2008 6:10PM]

HeadDESK :(

[Rick @ Oct 13th 2008 1:19PM]

They need to add this to the next 'I'm a PC..' commercials.