Recon Snow2 Heads-Up Display for Ski Goggles
I’m looking forward to the ski season which isn’t that far away I hope. The local ski slope has worked hard with their snow cannons the last week to prepare for the downhill skiers. Nevertheless looking out the window this December evening is a sad view. The few millimeters of snow that recently covered the ground is raining away. Well, well… What’s not better than search through the internet trying to find a new piece of cool winter gadget?
And what I found is so awesome I want one right away. I found a high tech gadget with an on-board computer and Heads-Up Display you can place inside your goggles!
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Heads-Up Display for Alpine Skiers
Last year I remember trying out different apps on my iPhone that supposedly would track my movements in the ski slopes. I wanted to measure my speed, distance, and heights. But it didn’t work very well. One of the main reasons might have been that my iPhone couldn’t handle the cold winter days and shut down constantly. I dreamt of a device that could show me the speed inside my ski goggles, and here it is including a lot more features than that.
The Recon Snow2 is a piece of high tech equipment made by the Canadian company Recon Instruments which deliver Heads-Up Displays (HUD) for the consumer market. They have also come up with a HUD for glasses used by runners and cyclists. In simple terms, these products project an image with information that is hovering in front of your eyes and follow your head movements.
Here is an introduction video from the company that explains what a HUD is:
The Snow2 unit itself is placed inside your ski goggles and will according to the manufacturer fit any Recon Ready alpine goggle. I’m not entirely sure how you know if a goggle is Recon Ready or not. Enlighten me in the comment section if you know. You can also buy the cool ski gadget pre-installed in some product like the UVEX G.GL9 goggle.
Wow… Sensors, sensors, sensors
Inside the unit, a whole lot of sensors measure your speed, jumps, directions, distance, vertical descent and more. I find all these sensors so fascinating that I have to mention them all: It has GPS, gyroscope, altimeter, accelerometer, magnetometer, and thermometer. The collected data is processed by a small built-in computer with dual-core CPU and shown on a high-res display. It feels like you’re looking at a transparent 14″ monitor 1.5 meters away with high brightness and contrast.
The device has both Bluetooth and Wifi on-board so you can hook it up to your smartphone and receive and read SMS messages in midair if that’s what you want. A remote with big buttons is strapped around your lower arm and it communicates with the Snow2 via Low Energy Bluetooth. It’s waterproof and I suppose they have tested it in really cold conditions too.
The Snow2 specification states that the max operating temperature is -20 degrees Celsius which may not be enough in my opinion. But you should be careful when skiing in colder temperatures anyway, so maybe it’s ok after all. Another concern is that I have had lots of troubles with smartphones on cold days as mentioned before, so I hope it’s possible to use the goggles without it.
Cameras and music players can also be paired up and controlled with this nice ski gadget.
Recon Snow2 Heads-Up Display for Ski Goggles
Limitless Possibilities for Developers
I see virtually endless possibilities for this product and what kind of information you can present on the HUD. The GPS will be able to provide you with maps on where you are so you’ll never get lost in a new slope. You will be able to track down your friends and see on the map where they are which have always been a challenge in ski resorts.
Imagine everything you can display from the Internet through your smartphone like opening hours of the lifts, the weather and the burger price in the restaurant nearby.
Recon Instruments has a full program for developers who want to experiment and make their own applications for the ski gadget. A SDK and API are possible to download so I’m sure we’ll see a lot of cool new functions in the future.
Software and App
Like other activity trackers these days, this snow sports gadget has its own app and online community you upload your statistics to. It’s called Recon Engage and you can review your latest runs and share them with friends and on social media. Both smartphones and tablets with Android and iOS are supported.
Price and Purchase
The price is quite high at $399, but I think it’s justified by the coolness and the number of functions this product have. It’s so high-tech that I guess it suits the advanced alpine skier more than the average. You can buy it directly from Recon and if you did, please leave me a comment down below.
Maybe one day all ski goggles for both kids and adults have this technology as standard. No more lost kids in the slope.
I just hope it starts snowing again…
Too cool! A another techie must-have item. I don’t think a device like this needs to be confined to the slopes. I could see any winter, outdoor enthusiast finding applications for this.
Agree! This HUD could be used by cross country skiers and biathlon and more. 🙂 There are so much potential in this cool product.
The Recon Snow 2 has so many wonderful features that reading your review almost felt like reading science fiction. What an awesome gadget for any skier! It seems as if there is nothing that its sensors cannot measure. Great job!
Hilda
Hi! Science fiction was the first thing I thought of too. It’s amazing how much technology and sensors you can put inside such a small device. 🙂
Wow. I didn’t even know that such goggles exist.
I don’t ski, but you have mentioned that they also have HUD for bike helmets. That might be of an interest for me. I will check that. Thanks!
It’s quite new technology for consumer users. I have corrected my text after reading your comment, the HUD is not attached to the helmet itself but to glasses. So it suits both runners and cyclists and more. Read more about the new product Jet here.
I have not been skiing for years and did not know these goggles even existed… I would love to try them and see them in action.
Thanks for the post and the information. Really great stuff for all skiing enthusiasts!!
Thanks
Chris
Glad you enjoyed my post and that I could enlighten you with some new information. 🙂 I would really like to test this gadget out and make a proper, detailed review myself.
Great stuff, I agree the price is a little high but sometimes a gadget comes along that’s just worth it. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Cheers, Tony.
Hi Tony. Thanks for your comment. I think it’s definitely worth it if it works as they say. Would like to take a closer look at their new product Jet which is glasses with HUD for runners and cyclists. That’s so cool. 🙂