Wearable safety lamps that take a more rounded approach in order to spread more light is something we’ve seen a bit of lately, but the OliLight takes things a little further. It is essentially a LED strip that can be worn like a belt for 360-degree illumination, and also doubles as a personal rescue beacon should you get into trouble in the wilderness.
The dust- and water-resistant OliLight is a light belt with LEDs embedded inside a UV-resistant polyurethane casing pumping out a maximum of 1,200-lumens. It connects at a quick release buckle in the front, which is where you’ll also find the power button, brightness controls and a button to activate the device’s SOS feature.
This SOS mode can also be triggered automatically, thanks to a suite of sensors built into the belt. These include a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope, along with a Bluetooth 4.0 module, which the OliLight’s creators say enables the device to automatically detect when the wearer is in trouble and send out a distress signal.
So, say you’re hiking along in the dark and trip on a rock, the belt should be able to pick up this sudden and abnormal acceleration or deceleration and begin a 15-second long sound alert.
If this isn’t switched off within 15 seconds, the alert is passed onto the smartphone and then, using the phone’s GPS, an SOS message is sent to a predefined phone number alerting the recipient to your location (this function only works if you’re within cell phone range). Meanwhile, the belt will start flashing a Morse code distress signal so rescuers can spot you more easily in the dark when they arrive.
Some of the OliLight’s features can also be customized through the companion smartphone app, such as the colors and light flashing modes, and each charge of the battery (via USB) should provide 100 hours of illumination.
OliLight hiking lamp sends a distress signal when disaster strikes [NewAtlas]