CAMBRIDGE -
In the long and colorful history of vending machines, they distribute cigarettes, chewing gum, ice cream and lottery tickets, sandwiches and ipod.
But a bicycle helmet? Enter MIT.
Specifically, 12 undergraduate students majoring in mechanical engineering 2. 009, a product-
The prestigious design class in the school park and local engineering community is designed to create intelligent, colorful prototypes from scratch in one semester.
MIT students, working with Boston, added another chapter to the history of vending machines.
The prototype of what they call HelmetHub will distribute the headwear to bike hub way riders who have not had a helmet so far
60 stylish, modular solar sharing systems were unveiled in Boston last summer
Power stations and 600 bicycles.
Tourists and local residents welcomed this, with more than 140,000 trips in four months.
But city statistics show that only 30% of passing users wear helmets.
This is a far cry from the 72% people wearing helmets while riding a bike, although the city strives to make the helmet cheap and accessible by convincing retailers to carry a heavily discounted helmet, for sale at $7 or near.
The price of the helmet is 50
Bell stores funds for non-profit organizations and governments.
The charm of Hub way is its immediacy, even the trip to the store --
Or the possibility of being put on a helmet after returning the bike --
Inconvenient for some users, says Nicole Friedman, who is in charge of managing the Boston bike project at hub way.
The HelmetHub prototype has a touch screen similar to the hub way rental kiosk, taking power from solar panels and occupying half of the space for soda machines.
It works by assigning helmets to fit most head sizes.
Friedman and the students think of them as sales. and-
Rental Kiosk, allowing those who buy helmets at A $8 hub way partner price to refund a partial refund.
They are talking about developing a beta version that can be tested by hub way riders as early as next summer.
"The students at MIT did a great job," Freedman said . " He contacted the students after visiting the products
In September, the creative exhibition of the design class attracted the attention of the student team, and people with interesting questions competed here.
Along the way, Friedman looked at a cardboard modelup and on Dec.
After the bike in Boston, lend the students a noisy station.
The sharing system goes into winter hibernation.
Two weeks later, when Friedman saw the finished product, she was surprised, but not at all surprised, and she knew not to underestimate what a dozen MIT students could do in a few weeks, with little sleep.
A few seconds later, she tapped the touch screen, swiped a credit card and pressed-
Pull a handle with a satisfactory th
Withdraw a helmet.
"Great!
I like it, Freedman says, and while she was testing HelmetHub, there were students around her, Chen atius Chen and Danielle Hicks --of-
More Apple's term prototype release
More stylish product debut than classroom display.
Students dressed in gorgeous costumes presented their projects on stage in front of the crowded Kresge Auditorium.
A rock band played, an overflowing crowd watched on the monitor in the lobby, followed by the team pushing their work to the hero's welcome.
Since it is still a prototype, HelmetHub spit out the receipt with inspiring information (
"It's a great day for a safe bike ride ")
Instead of the actual charge, the return slot needs to be fined-tuning.
But it looks like the street.
Ready to go to the actual hub way map on one side and the artificial ads on the back.
Hidden inside, 12 Bell helmets are screwed on one rod and stacked upside down to prevent the straps from winding.
Another compartment waiting for a return will be emptied for cleaning, checking, and replenishing inventory.
Since 1995, the design course taught by David Wallace is a crash course in product development.
The student team obtained a dedicated workspace at the Pappalardo lab at MIT, an engineer's playground equipped with riveting guns and soldering iron, laser cutting machines and 3D printers.
They are limited only by the $6,500 budget and academic calendar.
There is a theme for each semester.
Food last year.
Results include sushi
Providing robots and potato slicer, the elusive corner cutting is achieved.
This year's event is "in progress", so Friedman was naturally invited to the creative fair less than two months after the launch of hub way.
In all the bikes
Only shared Systems in Melbourne, Australia, all over the world have helmet vending machines at both sites.
But for hub way, its conveyor belt is too bulky.
The station in Boston is compact in design, occupying sidewalks, private property and converted parking spaces.
MIT HelmetHub is by far the first and only helmet vending machine to display for the North American crowd.
The students plan to advance their designs a lot after the winter break, drawing inspiration from past efforts. (
A prototype of level 2008
Portable and affordable Braille labeling machine-
6 dot, a California graduate startup, is now ready to enter the market. )
The students expect the production cost per machine to be $2,200 and the price to be $7,000.
In contrast, the cost of a bicycle-equipped computerized hub way station is about $50,000.
Students in Wallace's class believe that with the expansion of bike sharing, the broader business potential of selling Helmet kiosks;
New York City is working on a system that is 10 times as big as hub way.
"It's great for the environment and for the community," said Jessica attiles . " She helped convince her teammates to use the helmet machine, "but I think it needs to go hand in hand with the helmet.
"Eric emoskowitz @ can be reached. com.