London - It is the gadget that every workaholic will be clambering after – a pair of ski goggles that let you read your emails while on the slopes.
The £500 (about R6 500) Oakley Airwave has a fighter pilot-style screen on the inside of the lens, displaying a skier’s speed, location, altitude and distance travelled as they zoom down the slopes.
The goggles can also connect to an iPhone or Android phone or tablet, transmitting incoming calls to an earpiece. Text messages or emails can be beamed straight onto the screen in front of the skier’s eyes. Users can play music stored on their phone, flicking through playlists with a wireless controller worn on the wrist.
An accompanying Airwave app allows skiers or snowboarders to choose from 600 resort piste maps, and includes a “buddy” setting to track friends or relatives on the slopes.
The technology harnesses the power of the latest generation of smartphones, utilising the gadgets’ GPS, communications and entertainment technology and transferring it onto the surface of the goggles via Bluetooth. Data is shown on a display in the corner of the skier’s vision, with the effect of viewing a 14-inch screen from 5ft away.
The goggles were well received. Patrick Mallory, of US magazine Freshness, said: “You may not be cruising at 20,000ft with rockets attached to your wings. but Airwave goggles are the first step to giving you the futuristic heads-up display enjoyed by fighter pilots.”
Oakley chief executive Colin Baden said: “Airwave represents the power and possibility of technology.” - Daily Mail