Recon Instruments

Recon Instruments Inc.
Private
Industry Technology, Heads-up Display (HUD), Smartglasses
Founded Vancouver, BC, Canada (January 17, 2008)
Founder Dan Eisenhardt, Hamid Abdollahi, Fraser Hall, Darcy Hughes
Headquarters Recon Labs, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Area served
 N. America, Europe, Japan, Australia
Website ReconInstruments.com

Recon Instruments is a Canadian technology company that produces smartglasses and heads-up display solutions for sports. Recon's products deliver live activity metrics, GPS maps, and notifications directly to the user's eye. Recon's first heads-up display offering was released commercially in October 2010,[1] roughly a year and a half before Google introduced Google Glass.[2]

Recon has received investments from companies including Motorola Solutions and Intel.[3][4] It's also partnered with enterprise software vendors in order to make its latest smart eyewear device, the Jet, suitable for industrial applications.[5][6]

History

The technology behind Recon Instruments' products was born in September 2006 from an integrated MBA project. That project was undertaken by co-founders Dan Eisenhardt, Hamid Abdollahi, Fraser Hall, and Darcy Hughes at the University of British Columbia, Robert H. Lee Sauder School of Business.

Recon Instruments incorporated in January 2008, operating from small office and lab spaces rented from the University of British Columbia. In April 2010, the company moved to its current headquarters in the Yaletown area of downtown Vancouver.[7] As of March 2015, Recon is still led by CEO Dan Eisenhardt and CTO Hamid Abdollahi.[8]

Discovery and prototyping

Recon's co-founders originally looked into developing a HUD product for swimmers. Eisenhardt, a competitive swimmer himself, believed a HUD would be a valuable replacement for the clock at the side of the pool. Eisenhardt and his fellow founders developed the idea while studying at the University of British Columbia. However, a patent already existed for swimming goggles with a heads-up display. Because of that patent and the challenges presented by the technology's small form factor and intended operating conditions, the team eventually chose to focus on a winter sports product.[7] The co-founders subsequently turned this school project into their first retail product, which was distributed globally in October 2010.[1]

Investors

Recon has received investments from both venture-capital firms and other technology companies.[9]

In January 2012, Recon received $10 million in Series A funding from Vanedge Capital and Kopin Corporation. Vanedge Capital is a Canadian venture capital firm that specializes in "interactive entertainment and digital media businesses." Kopin Corporation is a U.S. firm known for microdisplays aimed at mobile electronics.[10]

In September 2013, Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel, announced that it had invested in Recon. Details of the deal were not disclosed. However, the announcement described wearables as "an area of significant focus" for Intel Capital, and it said the investment would allow Recon to "accelerate product development, marketing and global sales, as well as gain access to Intel Capital's expertise in manufacturing, operations and technology."[4]

In April 2014, Motorola Solutions announced an investment in Recon. Motorola Solutions describes itself as a provider of communications equipment for "government and enterprise customers." The terms of the deal were not made public. In July 2014, Motorola Solutions demonstrated a Recon product as a piece of kit for law enforcement personnel.[3]

Hardware

Recon's first products were smart goggles and heads-up displays aimed at the winter sports market. More recently, the company broadened its focus with the Jet, a smart eyewear device designed for activities like cycling and running.

Transcend

Recon's first commercial product, the Transcend, was released in October 2010. It was designed for winter sports and featured a small LCD screen embedded into a snow goggle frame by eyewear maker Zeal Optics. (Zeal Optics is now a subsidiary of Maui Jim, Inc.[11]) The Transcend displayed data like GPS maps, temperature, speed, and altitude, and it allowed users to share that data.[1] In 2011, the Transcend earned the Consumer Electronics Show's Best of Innovations award for Personal Electronics.[12]

MOD and MOD Live

Recon's MOD and MOD Live heads-up displays were released in November 2011. Unlike the Transcend, the MOD and MOD Live were sold separately from snow goggles. Users could fit them into specially designed "Recon-Ready" goggles from eyewear makers including Uvex, Alpina, and Briko.[13] Oakley also integrated the MOD Live into a specially designed snow goggle frame and marketed the resulting product as the Airwave.[14]

Both the MOD and MOD Live offered functionality similar to the Transcend's, but the MOD Live introduced the ability to connect to smartphones via Bluetooth. When connected to a user's smartphone, the MOD Live could display caller ID and SMS notifications.[13]

Snow2

Introduced in November 2013, the Snow2 is Recon's latest standalone heads-up display. It features a faster processor than the MOD and MOD Live along with improved display brightness and contrast, longer battery life, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity, and Made for iPhone (MFi) certification.

Like the MOD Live, the Snow2 can connect to smartphones in order to display call and SMS notifications. It also lets users connect to Facebook[15] and track their friends using the GPS-enabled maps feature.

The Snow2 heads-up display is designed to fit inside compatible eyewear from Oakley, Smith, Scott, Uvex, Alpina, Briko, and Zeal.[16] Oakley has integrated the Snow2 into a snow goggle frame and markets the resulting product as the Airwave 1.5.[17] Despite running an Android-based operating system,[18] the Airwave 1.5 is sold by Apple through both Apple retail stores and the online Apple Store.[19][20]

Jet

Unlike the Snow2, the Jet combines a heads-up display with a Recon-designed sunglass frame and polarized lenses.

The Jet is aimed at activities like cycling and running rather than winter sports. Recon has also partnered with enterprise software firms SAP[5] and APX Labs[6] with the aim of making Jet suitable for industrial applications in fields like manufacturing and oil-and-gas extraction. Motorola Solutions, one of Recon's investors, has also demonstrated[21] the Jet as law-enforcement equipment, as well.

Built into the Jet are GPS connectivity as well as sensors to track metrics like speed, pace, distance, and elevation gain. Users can also connect third-party sensors via ANT+ and smartphones via Bluetooth. Like the MOD Live and Snow2, the Jet can display call and SMS notifications from user's smartphones.

The Jet is powered by a 1 GHz processor with dual ARM Cortex-A9 cores. Its processor, display, and camera sit on the right side of the frame, while the battery sits on the left, evening out weight distribution. The battery is designed to be interchangeable, as well.[22]

Software

ReconOS

Recon devices run ReconOS, an operating system based on Android.[18]

ReconOS has a custom user interface designed for small displays. It shows live activity metrics and lets users share those metrics to social media. ReconOS also features GPS maps that display the locations of nearby friends and rotate depending on the user's head orientation. When a Recon device is paired with a smartphone, ReconOS can display call and SMS notifications, and it allows users to control the phone's music playback.[23]

ReconOS runs third-party applications, as well. Developers can write ReconOS apps using the Recon SDK.[24]

Engage website

The Recon Engage website allows users to browse, display, and share activity metrics recorded with a Recon device. Users can also tag friends, share photos, download software updates and third-party applications for their Recon device, and see their activities mapped in an embedded Google Maps pane.[25][26]

Engage mobile app

Available for iOS and Android, the Recon Engage mobile app lets users view and share their activity metrics, and it also allows compatible Recon devices to connect to smartphones. Connecting a Recon device to a smartphone enables features like friend tracking, call and SMS notification display, and music playback controls.[27][28]

Recon Uplink

The Recon Uplink desktop application lets users register their Recon device, update the device's software, and sync data from the device to an Engage account.[29] When used with Jet, the Uplink application can download photos from the device to the user's computer.[30]

Recon SDK

Aimed at developers, the Recon SDK includes the tools necessary to write third-party applications for ReconOS. Recon also provides documentation and sample apps from the Recon SDK page. Developers do not need to register or pay a fee to access the SDK, documentation, or sample apps.[24] The next version of the SDK will support both the Snow2 and the Jet.[31]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Recon Instruments deliver world's first GPS goggles with head-mounted display". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  2. ↑ "We think technology should work for you...". Google. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Recon Instruments Secures Investment from Motorola Solutions". Motorola Solutions. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Chip Shot: Intel Capital Invests in Wearables with Recon Instruments". Intel. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Recon Instruments Integrating Its Jet Smart Eyewear Solution With SAP AR Mobile Apps". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Recon Instruments And APX Labs Announce Partnership". Reuters. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "All eyes on a niche business". Financial Times. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  8. ↑ "About us". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Recon Instruments". CrunchBase. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Recon Instruments raise $10 million Series A financing". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Company Overview of Zeal Optics, Inc.". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  12. ↑ "CES 2011: Best of Innovations award winners announced". Pocket Lint. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Next generation HUD technology available from Recon Instruments this fall". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Oakley unveils Airwave ski goggles equipped with Recon's MOD Live heads-up display, iOS app". Engadget. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Recon Instruments introduce social integration feature for Snow2". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Recon Instruments introduce 4th generation heads-up display -- Snow2". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Using the Oakley Airwave 1.5 heads-up display with Apple's iPhone". AppleInsider. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Getting Started". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Oakley Airwave 1.5 Goggle - Apple Store". Apple. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Hell Has Frozen Over: Apple Now Selling Android Device Online". Cult of Mac. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Recon Instruments showcase Recon Jet eyewear at APCO trade show". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Recon Jet - Smart Eyewear". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Introducing ReconOS 4 for Snow2". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Welcome". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  25. ↑ "How do I download third party apps on to my Recon Jet?". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  26. ↑ "Recon Engage on the App Store on iTunes". Apple. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  27. ↑ "Recon Engage - Android Apps on Google Play". Google. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  28. ↑ "How to update and activate your SNOW2 for the first time?". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  29. ↑ "Save your pictures and images stored on your Recon Jet". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  30. ↑ "Developer Overview". Recon Instruments. Retrieved March 30, 2015.