RideOn is an Israeli start-up company which is developing an augmented reality headset for sports activities like skiing and snowboarding. RideOn has started a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo seeking a total of $75,000 in funding.
Source: RideOn
The system is being developed by a professional developer of augmented reality headsets for the military, who focused his professional knowledge on his passion for skiing. The system contains a user interface that is triggered by focusing on a specific sign on the augmented reality display. After selecting a specific function the headset creates an augmented reality image that focuses at 15 ft and further out.
Source: RideOn
The following image shows how the system can create directional markers in addition to navigation and other interaction applications.
Source: RideOnThe system seems to have one optical combiner (monocular design) that creates a field of view of 24 degrees and a brightness of up to 3,000 nits. With a dual core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex processor and 1GB of memory, the system does all the processing and control of the on board HD camera. For connectivity it relies on Bluetooth 4.0, which seems to indicate that Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity will be provided by a paired smartphone.
RideOn has also made videos in support of the Indiegogo campaign. The first one describes the campaign in more detail and the current state of the device development.
The second video explains a little more in detail how the headset works. Do not expect any technical details though.
The Indiegogo campaign offers a $499 early bird option, with 52 of 100 units already claimed. From there the price of a unit rises to $550 and $599 compared to an expected retail price of $899. This is a little steep compared to the $549 a Recon Instruments Snow 2 headset will cost you. Of course the technology is much advanced compared to the look-around display of the Recon Instruments headset. So far the campaign has raised $31,999 (as of 1/22/2015) of a total $75,000 goal. There are 28 days left in the campaign as of today. – Norbert Hildebrand
