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  • Author Author: Catwell
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Ski Goggle Tech Roundup; HUDs, HD cameras, and Sensors

Catwell

 

Entering an industry with already high competition was no deterrent for Recon Instruments. Recon just announced a partnership with Smith Optics and SCOTT sports over MOD sports goggles. They are attempting to bring augmented reality in a heads-up-display to competitors, will they succeed?

 

An example of the onboard HUD (via Recon Instruments)

 

The MOD system can be immensely helpful when ridding down new territory. The goggles are equipped with GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, altimeter and temperature sensors to provide skiers and riders with precise speed, jump, vertical, altitude, location, distance, and temperature measurements and readings in real-time. The "MOD live" system has the largest database of trail maps in the entire world already preloaded right into the goggle. No worries about bringing a music player either, the system has a built in Music Playlist Mode. MOD plans to unlock a camera connectivity app for the use of point and view action in May 2012.

 

Recon Instruments is no stranger to the goggle business. They partnered with industry giant Zeal Optics over a series of GPS-enabled goggle sets. The Transcend and Z3  have almost the same specs touted for the MOD system, but are available now.

 

 

Zeal Optics is embarking down the HD camera capture route with their new iON goggle tech. iON goggles have the ability to capture HD video and photos while having the "time of your life down the mountain." Connectivity and sharing with social networks is the main focus. Storage capacity is limited to the size of the micro-SD card installed in the goggle set.

 

What makes iON goggle so popular is the ability to capture your flight down the mountain in remarkable quality. Making this happen is a 1080p True HD video camera. The camera captures real-time video and sound while able too snap 8-megapixel photos. Simply press a button on the side of the iON goggles; picture taken. The iON not only uses a high-quality camera but also uses a 170-degree wide angle lens so it does not leave anything out of the picture. I am not a fan of the extreme-sport fish-eye lens look, for the record. Zeal Optics claim you could use the camera up to six hours of shredding per charge. (External battery possible Zeal?)

 

All these companies are chasing the elusive all-in-one model, HD video and every sensor imaginable. It seems all these companies are walking hand-in-hand towards that goal, we just have to wait. However, I would like to see an augmented reality competitor in this field. Projecting the perfect launch path follow while snowboarding would turn us all into Shaun White.

 

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  • I wonder how they would hold up to the first big wipe-out off piste in knee-deep powder though - I guess they must have made the electronics pretty robust but I'd feel a bit wary about doing anything too crazy for fear of breaking them, and that's all the stuff you would actually want to use as footage! Part of the attraction of skiing/snowboarding for me is getting away from all the tech clutter of modern life as well, so I'll stick to my old A-frames, but I can see that certain people would love all this gadgetry mounted inside their goggles. Maybe a more useful addition would be a HUD avalanche transceiver so that people don't have to waste vital time fishing around in their pockets and could start looking for a buried person straight away.

     

    Edit - meant to say - cool overview article image

  • in reply to jealderson1

    Joe,

     

    As social networking gets more pervasive, so does capturing every moment of one's life. Reliving sport moments does sound fun. I have never done that myself. However, I would like to see some footage of myself skateboarding back in grade school. Unfortunately, google cameras were not at my disposal during the day.

     

    Cabe

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