Halo is a cordless 360° Personal Safety and Task Light that quickly attaches to any hard hat to protect workers and improve visibility on the work-site. Construction workers in low-visibility situations are practically invisible to motorists and equipment operators. Halo is visible over ¼ mile away, making it easy to spot. Work-site work lights that workers rely on insufficiently illuminate both workers and their work areas. Halo floods the task area with light out to the visual periphery. Halo enables the wearer to See and Be Seen. There are four modes: HALO, bright (276 lumens) 360-degrees; HI-ALERT, bright pulse circling; TASK, bright front third of the Halo with dim completing the ring; DIM, dim 360-degrees for working next to someone.

Halo is designed to be "light as brand". We reduced the structure around the light to draw focus to the light itself. The housing becomes invisible as you move further from it, leaving only the distinctive halo of light. This new Halo design is cordless, leading to a sleeker design and a better experience for the user.

Halo is simple and intuitive to use: There's only 1 button; pressing it turns the Halo on/off and cycles through the 4 modes. Installation takes less than a second and only requires pushing Halo on to the hard hat. Removal is just as easy; the user pulls the Halo off. The rechargeable battery can be swapped out without a tool. Workers can wear the Halo all day unencumbered because it's lightweight and cord-free. It is almost indestructible and able to survive the rigors of a construction site.

Construction sites are dangerous places; by lighting both the wearer and their environment, Halo improves safety and enables people to work more efficiently. Get home safe. Halo.

Most safety products in the construction field have been focused on passive rather than active alerts. The problem with passive alerts like retroreflective clothing is they require an external light source to function and are only as effective as the that light source.

Our solution had to succeed where current products fail:

· Actively illuminates the wearer

· Ensures workers are visible from all sides

· Is bright enough to be seen over ¼ mile away

· Lights the task area out to workers' visual periphery (unlike headlamps)

· Requires no secondary light source to illuminate (unlike reflective clothing)

· Moves with the worker, even underground and off the ground (unlike current worksite lights)

· Does not cast the worker's own shadow on his work area (unlike current worksite lights)

· Is rugged enough for construction sites and extremely durable (unlike headlamps)

· Is simple enough to use without instruction

· Is energy efficient (unlike current worksite lighting)

· Long battery life (over 5.5 hours on highest power, over 40 hours on lower-power)

Construction sites are tough on equipment. Our research on the previous version of the Halo showed us how hard workers are on their things. They often duct tape equipment together or use other methods to repair or protect their equipment. Halo was built to withstand the daily abuse of construction sites and keep working. It's rugged enough to withstand the mud, dust, drops, and downpours (drop tested and IP 67 rating). The same unit was put through a series of tests to ensure its survival on a construction worksite:

1. Encasement in mud

2. Immersion for one minute in water

3. Dropping a toolbox on it (twice)

4. Driving over it with a Jeep

5. Dropping it 25 feet onto asphalt

At the end, the unit functioned normally and had only minor cosmetic damage. No duct tape needed! The videos can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ILLUMAGEAR

The construction industry can be slow to change and to adopt new solutions and new technologies. Products used up to now to try and solve issues around "See and Be Seen" have had real limitations. PPE retroreflective wear has been used for over 40 years to try and make workers more visible but it's a "passive" (rather than active) solution that requires another light to illuminate the wearer and make s/he visible. Camping headlamps have been used for many years now as the primary personal solution for individuals to see their surroundings, get work done in low-light conditions, and avoid trip hazards.

While the opportunity for a different, better solution may seem obvious, the challenge is introducing a new and different product into a market with strong cultural inertia against change. As such the product had to meet some critical requirements:

· It must deliver a strong enough value proposition that people will consider changing from what they already use and feel is good enough.

· It must be delivered at a low price given limited project safety budgets and because its replacement cost will be compared to low-cost items (e.g. headlamps and reflective vests).

· It must be very low weight given it is worn on the head.

· It must be extremely durable given the environment in which it must perform every day.

· It must support a full work shift on a single charge.

· It needs to work with current equipment (e.g. a worker's current hard hat of which there are hundreds of models)

· It must support any other safety requirements and protocols (e.g. the ANSI rating of the hard hat states that nothing may be permanently affixed, attached or penetrate it)

· It must be easy to install.

· It must be easy to operate.

· It must be battery powered (cordless) and easy to re-charge.

Companies have a great deal invested in their workers – and so do the families of those workers. The Halo makes construction safer by making workers visible from all directions even at ¼ mile distance. In low-visibility situations, workers are practically invisible to motorists and equipment operators. Every year, more than 200,000 workers are injured on construction sites in the US. In 2015, there were 937 fatalities. (USBLS) Being visible over ¼ mile away gives passing motorists enough time to brake, and reminds them to slow down. It gives heavy equipment operators the ability to see those directing them, as well as workers in the vicinity. It enables worksites to have light where they need it, even in small spaces underground and on suspended structures such as bridges.

Halo doesn't just improve safety. It helps people work more efficiently, saving companies time and money.