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Helite Hip'Air is a belt with airbags to protect your hips

Airbags for your saddlebags.

Patrick Holland Managing Editor
Patrick Holland has been a phone reviewer for CNET since 2016. He is a former theater director who occasionally makes short films. Patrick has an eye for photography and a passion for everything mobile. He is a colorful raconteur who will guide you through the ever-changing, fast-paced world of phones, especially the iPhone and iOS. He used to co-host CNET's I'm So Obsessed podcast and interviewed guests like Jeff Goldblum, Alfre Woodard, Stephen Merchant, Sam Jay, Edgar Wright and Roy Wood Jr.
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These airbags are designed to protect your hips in case of a fall.

 Josh Miller/CNET

Hip injuries can be deadly, and it takes nothing more than a simple fall to get one. But at a tiny booth at CES in a Mandalay Bay Hotel ballroom, a woman wearing fluorescent airbags around her waist had the answer: the Hip'Air.

The Hip'Air deployed.

 Helite

She was from a French company called Helite that specializes in wearable airbags built into clothes for skiers, motorcyclists and horse riders.

The Hip'Air looks like a fanny pack, but is filled with sensors, a battery, airbags and an air cartridge. When a sensor detects a fall, the airbags deploy to break a person's fall.

The Hip'Air has a battery life of a week and is designed to be reusable.

Hip'Air has been in development for 10 years after one of Helite's founders saw the horrible effects a broken hip had on a relative. The company has been working with nursing homes in France to develop the product.

Watch this: The hippest wearable to get your grandma

The Hip'Air will be available in Europe this spring for €600, which converts to $720, £530 and AU920. It will be available in the US starting in the fall.

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