Smart Goggles

Well I was going to write about an idea that I had, goggles that can keep track of your laps, I will include that at the end of this story.

Brilliant, Brilliant designer Katie Williams created a prototype of swim goggles as part of her design degree at Brunel University in West London. Katie like many has spent hours in the water and will always loose count of the laps we are on, for me I always think that I have done more laps than I probably have. Well she got tierd of this and decided to do something about it. Williams' system incorporates an electronic device, which houses a compass, at the back of the headstrap on the goggles. There is also a small button on the side of the goggles, which activates and deactivates the device when pressed. When a swimmer enters the pool, they press the button once, which signals to the compass the direction the swimmer will be traveling. When the swimmer turns, the compass detects that the co-ordinates have changed and registers the time. The information, including the total time spent swimming, the number of laps completed and the speed traveled are shown in a tiny heads-up display inside the goggle lens, using a system that reflects information off tiny mirrors.

My idea is a little different:
Technology hasn't always help improve what we do, if any one is interested in helping me develop my ideas you can contact me at tubaduba@healthcurrency.com attention Aaron Usiskin, we have SwiMP3 by Finis players that can work underwater for listening while you swim, great not useful to me but a good idea at $200+ dollars. What I would like to see "literally" is Speedo, or any other company to develop a device to count my flip turns. Lets call my device LapCounter(tm), attach a device to my foot (the pad of the foot) and within the goggles you could have a little display that can tell me after a flip turn when my foot pushes off the wall, what lap I am on. I think this is simple use an RFID device (pressure pad) attached to the ball of the foot, and inside or attached to the goggles can be a display that shows what lap you are on.

It can be just like the SwiMP3, the device attached to the back of the strap, placed on the back of the skull. This limits drag and then a wire lead to the goggles will show you what lap you are on using e-paper technology (maybe). Using existing technology electronic paper-based system, several manufactures are hot on this Citizen, Seiko and Hitachi to name a few," American shopkeepers may want to take a cue from Japan, where retailers are testing an electronic paper-based system that lets them change posted prices based on data fed to the shelves from a central server. The displays were created by tire company Bridgestone, and use a substance they call Electro Liquid Powder, which Bridgestone claims is brighter and more easily viewable than comparable LCD displays."
Thanks Core77.com and Engadget.

Polar Cadence Sensors

This one is a "no" brainier. Buy two and one for your road bike the other for your Mountain, at $30 bucks a pop combined with the Polar S625X™ Running Computer you are set. Designed for the cycling enthusiast, cross trainer, advanced exerciser or athlete and it is wireless and allows you to monitor your pedal cadence as you ride. After completing the workout, download your cadence graph along with heart rate and speed graphs. Maintain the right cadence for those high spin workouts! The cadence sensor sets up quickly and gives you your pedal RPMs for quick feedback on your “spinning”. GET ONE Polar USA.

Nike MaxSight

Bausch & Lomb / Nike has developed a contact lens that helps you see better. Imagine being able to have a pair of Maui Jims as contacts. They are design so that you can wear them are sunglasses that filter out the bad light and enhance your vision for sports. They are for prescription and non prescription a bit pricey $300 for a 6 months supply, but I'll bet that when first released Bausch & Lomb / Nike will have a hit. Bausch & Lomb / Nike

Pad Learns About Your feet

Well we have LLBean that will take a outline of your foot to make sure the shoe fits. Now Yves Behar designed a shoe or pad that you wear around the house or walk down the street and it collects the data, thenyou take the chip out dowload the data and create your own very own shoes. A new pair of shoes in another color, form or material and ergonomically customized using your data gathered while on your walk. This is still in production but look to Nike or a large shoe company to buy this up. Imagine that in a couple of years that you go to a shoe store wear a pair of slippers around the store, they have a device that you can download the information too, from there it is uploaded to Nikes development center, you build your shoe and within a week,personalizedd shoes.
GIZMODO

Polar USB IR Interface Kit

This is a great little device for people with/WO the IRDA on your computer. Now must of us have laptops I am assuming, my dell has the port built in but not activated and there are a dozen of sites that tell you have to activate the IRDA, but for $40 why bother. Once I got it installed and followed the instructions to a tee, the little device works like a charm. A problem that I encounter is that if I unplug it before I shut down I get a blue screen so be careful and enjoy.

NY Triathlon and Accenture

Well, after months of waiting and having them say that the event was closed I was registered in the NYC Triathlon, that was the good news, the bad news was the plans that I made could not be broken so I must wait till next year, I keep telling myself that I will be better prepared. Oh well, the other good news is that Accenture has some cool technology that can track the athlete via cell phone or website, very much like the sailing post that I added earlier. These are some things that the tracking will include.

On July 10th, 2005 take part in the excitement and see how your athlete is performing during the Ford New York City Triathlon!

The athlete tracking capabilities will include:


Finish Line Video - for the first time ever you can view a live stream of the finish line during the race. Once the race is completed you will also be able to see a 30 second video clip of your athlete crossing the finish line!

Interactive Map - during the race you will be able to view your athlete's split times and his/her progress on an interactive map.

Athlete Statistics - once the results are in, you will be able to see your athlete's statistics such as placings and average speed.

You can track up to three athletes. The technology is getting better and better to be able to launch my next IDEA, any Venture firms that are interested you can contact me through this site.

To all the Triathletes participating in the event good luck.

Earth Browser (Google)

This program in totally addicting, earth.google.com . I thought it was just me being a Geek, but I showed my buddy who does a lot of Enduro racing and he could not be pulled away from the computer. You are amazed by first the detail that you can see house, roads, mountains, etc.. After you find your house and your friends and family you start to really notice the features that it has and can be download to you computer. GPS, Elevation, distance, locations and these are the ones that I find useful. There is city and state boundaries, gas stations, directions, water ways, you will find yourself spending hours with the FREE version and for $20+ you can get a more advanced version. I could keep going and for the ones that are saying what does this have to do with Fitness technology, imagine printing out your whole routes and marking then up keeping a binder and referencing them. Yea this is cool.

Burley Baby "new" hitch

The Burley baby trailer in one of the best little fitness devices that I have in the garage, it might be a little low tech for this blog but I thought since the 4th weekend is upon us what a better way to get out and enjoy it with your kids in tow. Right now I have to attach it to the triangle part of the frame and can't use it with a suspension bike, till now The Burley Alternative Hitch---Hook Up with Virtually Any Bike, this is gong to be great. It won't damage your frame, so why wait get out and enjoy.