HANS (Head And Neck Safety) device is widely used by automobile racing drivers like the United States based ones, and more recently in Formula One as well.

Of course it would be really nice if they could develop something like this for Motorcycle Riders. Helmet is not sufficient enough as it only protects the head and not the neck. With the advancements in technology I'm fairly confident that they'll find a way to modify and adopt such device for motorcycle-riding use.

For the benefit of those who haven't seen it yet, below is a rough photo illustration of what HANS is and how it is attached to the helmet.

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/images/hansdev.jpg