A head-up display for joggers has been designed by German firm o-synce.
The display system, which is mounted in the runner's hat, uses a 2.4GHz transceiver from Nordic Semiconductor
to provide wireless links to up to eight sensors.
Called the Screeneye X, the display shows elapsed time, heart rate, speed, distance and calories consumed. The data is projected directly on to a fluorescent plastic display powered by UV light collected by the cap during the day such that it can auto-dim and -brighten in response to ambient lighting levels while drawing a negligible amount of power.
Nordic's nRF24AP2-8CH transceiver, is compatible with the ANT low power wireless protocol and operates at 17mA peak current and the entire cap-based system operates from a 150µAh rechargeable battery. The cap, which costs $200, is set-up and controlled via three waterproof keys located in the visor and all training data is recorded to within 1s accuracy and can be exported to a PC at the end of a training session via a micro USB connection that will simultaneously re-charge the on-board battery.
"We aim to create an entirely new personal head-up display product category with this product and in the future extend its capabilities to include the ability to connect to smartphones and other portable devices," said Dirk Sandrock, o-synce CEO.
ANT is a low power protocol aimed at body area networks with nodes operating on watch batteries. It supports a star network with one master and seven slaves over short distances.
According to Geir Langeland, Nordic Semiconductor's director of sales and marketing, this is an example of a new product category that "didn't even exist a few years ago and would not have been made possible without the evolution and success of ANT+ interoperable ULP wireless connectivity."
