Log and capture
Once activated – time to first fix was about 2 minutes – the GPS and altimeter kick in to record the altitude and position, time and temperature are also logged. By default the display shows your real-time speed and altitude along with a stopwatch but it can also be set to display the temperature or distance travelled, both vertically and horizontally.
Menu options and stats
Display pop-ups can be configured to alert you when something significant happens such as bettering your previous maximum speed or gaining/losing another 500m in altitude. There is enough on-board storage to record about 40 hours of data and each full charge from the micro USB port is good for around 7 hours of use.
Rekon HQ software maps the courses you took and the rate you took them at
Recorded data can be downloaded and plotted against Google Maps using the ReconHQ application from co-developer Recon Instruments. The app uses a system of algorithms called TrueStats to give accurate vector speeds over mountainous terrain. Recon also hosts an online portal for Transcend users to whip their accomplishments out and wave them about in public.
Next page: Where eagles dare
COMMENTS
Ideal for long distance cross-country skiers
Cross country skiers will find these useful, particularly the hardy souls who don't follow the beaten trail,
Might even prove useful for Canadians living in the north when they check their trap lines.
Navigation
Does it have any form of waypoint storage so you can use it to guide you around a large ski resort, or even point you to civilisation?
Memories of a complete white out, followed by about three hours stumbling down the wrong bit of the hill to the bar are coming back to haunt me, if only because being the wrong bit of hill the bar wasn't there...
And wingsuiting skydivers also
http://twitpic.com/3e06a2
+1
Nice idea, but as said above just WAY too expensive for the abuse and short lifespan of most ski goggles. And frankly, at THAT price I don't want "an anti-fog coating", I want dual-pane sealed lenses like Uvex and Oakley offer that are FOG-FREE (almost). I can put up with single-pane coated lenses in a set of Bolles at £55, but NOT at that price. (And at that price, I want my Vermillion lenses, not junky orange!)
@JaitcH
Maybe not, bcos as I read the article they only record your position and don't actually tell you where you are.
@Laird, ultralights don't have much instrumentation, but what they have is essential. Gliders need a vario to say whether you're going up or down, and GPS isn't sensitive enough to track up/down accurately. And all aircraft need an altimeter which *always* works off air pressure so using a GPS could result in you sharing airspace with a 747 on approach. Powered aircraft may want to know speed too, but that's *always* airspeed, so again a GPS ain't much use.
