Everysight hopes Raptor fixes the issue with most smart glasses – obscuring biker’s vision. Raptor glasses provide a HUD that displays your calories, heartrate, and speed (Via Eyesight)
Are better HUD glasses on the way? It seems so.
Smart glasses can greatly enhance a biker’s cycling experience. They can display your stats, heartrate, distance traveled, and mileage, similar to the popular Fitbit. But these glasses present a problem for avid bikers: a HUD that can block your view, which is pretty bad when you need to see where you’re going. Cycling company Everysight thinks it’s fixed this problem with their latest device, Raptor. Raptor is a set of augmented reality glasses that shows you data via a transparent display on the lens. Stats like, heartrate, speed, calories etc. will be available to see, but shouldn’t obstruct your view. And if you want to review your trip, the device will record you ride in HD and with sound.
Raptor has several options available for control, such as buttons on the handlebars for ease, a touchpad on the glasses themselves, though you may not want to use it while riding, and even voice commands. The device uses a companion app on your phone that enables you to share your stats with other fitness apps making it easy to track your progress. The current version only supports Bluetooth so far, but the company has stated it’s working on including support for ANT+ for the future allowing them to connect with third party devices.
Don’t go running to Everysight with cash in hand just yet. The device is still in development, but close to finishing. There’s no word on when the public launch will be or the price, but there is a way to get your hands on one early. The company is currently looking for testers via their Test Pilot Program. You’re eligible to try a pair of Raptors if you ride 12 times a month and use fitness devices, like bike computers and heart rate monitors. The deadline for singing up is December 23. If you don’t make it, there will be an expanded program in 2017.
Raptor isn’t the first pair of smart biking glasses on the market. Last year, Recon Jet was launched, which offers many of the same features as Raptor, particularly the HUD. But it’s finicky controls and hefty price tag of $699 didn’t make it a favorite among bikers. And, of course, there’s Google Glass, but that wasn’t made with bikers in mind and has its own list of issues. Having a pair of smart glasses built for biking can be a relief for serious riders. They can keep track of their performance and stats without having to stop to check their FitBit every so often. And with a promising HUD, hopefully you see where you’re going without any obstructions. You can imagine these glasses are going to cost a good amount, but we’ll have to wait til next year to (hopefully) see them in action.
Now we just need something like this for the manufacturing world.
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