RideOn, a startup based in Tel Aviv, recently unveiled their prototype of ski goggles of the same name that incorporate augmented reality features for the first time ever. RideOn’s seethrough display (think Google Glass) projects augmented reality layers and features as if they’re floating in the distance in front of you.
“We wanted to find our locations on a ski resort map instantly, or to quickly contact each other when we’d get separated. We wanted to do these things without having to take our gloves off, or use our phones,” said Alon Getz, CEO and cofounder, on why they created the goggles.
Software engineer and cofounder Ori Kotek noted that headsup display goggles like Oakley Airwave and Recon’s Snow2 sort of achieved this, but with bulky external devices like wristpieces, and a display located in the user’s peripheral vision. “What distinguishes RideOn is our delivery of a true augmented reality experience, derived from a seethrough display that projects data onto the center of your field of view, not on the side,” he explained.
Furthermore, users interact with these data and features handsfree just by staring at friends, ski lodges, and ski lifts in the distance, or by looking up at floating buttons fixed to the sky. Getz and Kotek invented this style of UI to keep riders’ hands warm in their gloves.
The goggles also feature an HD camera for capturing video and for videochatting with friends back home. RideOn uses this camera in combination with inertial sensors and GPS to measure user location and head orientation.
Getz and Kotek hope RideOn goggles will revolutionize the ski experience, but that all this depends on the success of their Indiegogo campaign.
all images and video courtesy of RideOn