OK, so when we saw the picture below, we thought someone had put a toilet seat over their head or that they were being slowly engulfed by a giant mozzarella ball. But as it turns out, this new invention looks pretty sleek and the only time that it looks comical is if it's busy saving your life - and at that point, we guess that you're probably not overly style conscious.



So what is it? Well it's a new take on the bicycle helmet or more precisely, it's an inflatable bicycle helmet. Jump aboard your bike and simply attach what looks like a giant scarf around your neck. Then ride around to your heart's content with the wind blowing in your hair. Hopefully you'll never see the inflatable aspect of the invention but we're not so naive to think that nobody falls or gets knocked off their bike (although life would be that much sweeter if all cyclist remained upright at all times). So, if you hit a pothole and find yourself hurtling towards the ground, the scarf automatically inflates around your head saving your precious skull from impact with the tarmac.

We still have some questions unanswered such as what happens if the helmet is accidentally dropped and can the inflatable be reused. More importantly, the tests show the inflatable working on a slow impact accident and we don't know if the inflatable could react quickly enough at higher speeds. But if the boffins can figure all this out, this might be the beginning of a helmet revolution!