A British man has designed a helmet that could save the lives of bikers and the military. The ThermaHelm is a carbon-fiber lid with two lightweight chemical packs — one water, the other ammonium nitrate — built into the lining of the helmet. In the event of impact, the contents of the two packs mix together, triggering a cooling reaction.

Jullian Preston-Powers thought of the idea after he and a friend hurt themselves during a basketball game. “I had smashed my elbow on (my friend’s) head,” he says. “Someone handed us both ice packs for our injuries, and it was so cold I couldn’t hold it for very long. So I placed it in my friend’s motorcycle helmet and he accidentally put it on while the pack was inside. He was surprised by how good it felt and that’s when I had that eureka moment.”

The $490 invention will be launched in the UK in May this year, and they are already developing a more sophisticated version which, at $815, will include a video camera, GPS and Bluetooth. You can see a short video explaining how it works after the jump.

Via Daily Mail