Our headrest reduces the chances of whiplash by using memory foam and airbag technology. When the car is being hit from behind, the memory foam slows down the passengers head speed and the airbag prevents the head from being thrown back and forth and causing whiplash. Our design is focusing on equality in car safety. The shape and length of the metal rods makes it adjustable to fit all people from 145 cm to 210 cm correctly, which is not the case today.
Why?
From reading the book "Invisible Women", by Caroline Criado Perez, we learned that women are much less safe when it comes to car safety, due to the lack of laws for female car test dummies. We looked into where the difference between the safety for males and females is the most: whiplash. This is due to women's weaker muscles in the neck and the lack of legal requirements for testing and setting options for headrests.
Exploded view and cross section
SELECTION FROM THE PROCESS
A big part of this project was the research. We needed to understand whiplash, car safety, car seats and headrests, airbags, and much more. We did many interviews with professionals in the different fields related to our project. We wanted to design a headrest that could be installed correctly for all people. We acquired a car seat to understand the construction of a headrest today and to measure the height of different people in relation to a headrest.
We understood from our research phase, that it wouldn't be enough with just a headrest that could be installed correctly. Therefore we experimented with the shock-absorbing ability of materials (video) and looked into the "Hövding" helmet to get inspired on how we could design a headrest, that would slow down the head and prevent it from being thrown back and forth, causing whiplash.
We wanted to play with the look and shape of the headrest but ended up choosing a more simple design, that could accommodate the technology and fit with the styles of many modern cars today
We wanted to play with the look and shape of the headrest but ended up choosing a more simple design, that could accommodate the technology and fit with the styles of many modern cars today
Different headrest designs
Material and airbag test
Airbag drawing
First 3D drawing
