Honda’s thinking ‘haptic’ motorcycle danger feedback designs break cover

Honda’s thinking ‘haptic’ motorcycle danger feedback designs break cover.

Hot news from the USA where the guys at motorcycle.com have uncovered these patent drawings for a blind-spot monitoring system from Honda which will go on the company’s bikes.

In a report by Dennis Chung, the patent drawings are clearly shown and will work as a 360 degree set of ‘eyes’  to detect when vehicle, pedestrians or other obstacles fall into a predetermined area around the motorcycle.

The system uses a combination of cameras and wave radar to be able to monitor the area around it. There is going to be some sort of visual indicator of where the hazard is in relation to the position of the motorcycle, too (this could even be a small screen mounted to the dash).

According to more details in the patent explanation, the bike will also get a series of small haptic feedback motors which can be mounted to the handelbars, footrests, seat cushion and a fuel tank’s knee indents – these are marked out by the dashed ovals in the diagram).

According to motorcycle.com (who bagged this story, we must stress) although the bike used in the patents is a VFR1200F, the application of this tech can be used across other models in Honda’s line up.

Cool story.