'smart' sunglasses show athletes a good time - led display manufacturer

By Tom simonitthe sunglasses by combining a double focus lens with a prism, the stopwatch and the athlete's heart rate are displayed in their peripheral vision (
Picture: Rodenstock)
Adding 7 grams to a pair of sunglasses allows them to display data in the athlete's peripheral vision.
The view through the left eye is shown here, both eyes are open and the display is not very noticeable. (
Picture: Rodenstock)
A German company has developed a sunglasses to show athletes performance and heart rate data in their peripheral vision.
Sunglasses known as "informmance" show a stopwatch and heart rate on one edge.
The extra components required to do so only add the total weight of 7g of glass-much less than the previous head --up displays.
The left lens of the glasses is like a pair of double-focus glasses.
But instead of having two regions of different strength, it's a thin wedge --
A prism of shape is built into the left edge of the lens.
The longest side of the prism faces the eye of the wearer, and the shortest side faces the left side outward.
A small LED display, powered by a polymer battery inside the left arm of the glass, projects the image from the side to the prism.
Before reaching the wearer's eyes, the image is reflected twice inside the prism.
This special lens was developed by German glasses manufacturer Rodenstock. Most head-
Installation or "head-
Mike Hazel, an optical engineer at Cambridge Consultants, said that the up "display was manufactured for the defense industry and he was commissioned to develop electronics for glasses.
They are usually heavy and, like in a fighter pilot's helmet, display information more eye-catching.
Usually, the image is projected from the end of the assembly that protrudes in front of the eye.
"If wearable computing is popular, you need to provide some information, but not a lot of information," Hazell said . " "Our goal is to make something very light that can be designed as a common wonder.
"Current prototype (
See picture, right)
Get information by wirelessly linking to digital watches and Heartsrate monitor.
The display accounts for only 12% of the left eye view and is barely noticeable when looking straight ahead.
The brain also compensates for coverage by emphasizing the right eye view, so it is less noticeable in practice.
Also, he says it can run for 12 hours without charging.
Dietmar Uttenweiler, head of optical research for ophthalmology at Rodenstock, added that the display is 320 by 240 pixels and can show more information.
"Showing the direction and distance of GPS device transmission is a possibility that we are interested in," he said . ".
Rodenstock plans to convert informmance into commercial products by 2009.
Uttenweiler says its price should be between 700 and 1000 euros.