I had/have the Iolite. It worked very well. Shame they disappeared. Hard to get it to work now with dead software. Their design could have been improved. The button arrrangement was fumbly to work with when it was on your head.

I would actually consider buying a headstrap with a Garmin quick-release so that I could mount my Garmin to the top of my head during OWS and remove it for the bike!

So you would also need a display in the goggles and mapping SW on the device to plot your course ahead of time?

Might be tough getting an accurate map with the actual bouy placement. Could possibly use heading info from a pre race recon but not sure that would be accurate enough to skip sighting. Maybe would allow someone to reduce the number of sighting efforts to 25% of normal?

Short answer: as you describe-no.
Long answer: what I really want is an accurate measure and track of what I have swum in the open water. Something that sits under my cap and links to my watch would be ideal (Marlin Platypus from memory did this. Although did not connect to garmin). I have no found the Form goggles great, and am not sure how useful it would be to see what pace I am swimming and what direction etc in an event.

With all that in mind, the bigger issue I see: for a race, to use it to decrease sighting, you need to have the buoy positions loaded into the device pre-race, meaning you need exact positions of all the turning buoys pre event, have a program you can manually load then into and upload to the device so you can swim a particular course. Quite a few issues I can see, buoys change position, may not be where they were supposed to be etc. Seems a lot of effort.

As I said, first and foremost I would love something that can accurately track my swim with GPS!

You shouldn't really need to sight much (or at all) in most triathlon or OWS swims. If you can jump on the toes of a small group they will sight for you. It's pretty unlikely that 4 or 5 swimmers are not sighting at all or are all swimming wonky. And if you can see swim swimmers in front to your right and to your left, you know you're probably swimming straight.

The Iolite did not require loading buoy positions ahead of time. It just took your track and then told you if you were deviating from it. When it detected a turn (at a buoy for example), it just learned that new course.

Interesting...
Kinda outside the box, but maybe if you had something that would beep or vibrate on either side of head to help you realize which way you're drifting off target...

I’m reminded of I believe pro race in S Africa in roughly 2017z. 2 groups made the turn boy, one group went straight in direction of next swim boy. Other group was veering off in like a 45* angle with a group of about 10. For about 4 mins you could just tell no one was sighting. Until all at once they realized they were waaaay off course. And like ants they all course corrected.

You should be sighting often even in packs. I certainly wouldn’t trust others around me even in a pack. People have zero ability to swim straight in a non black line sighting way.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I love my on course googles - i have been swimming open water for 50 years (yes i'm that old) with significant experience in both lakes and surf - these have significantly improved my ability to swim straight - if i was still racing ironman i would estimate a 2 to 4 minute time saving over 3.8.

Marlin Platypus did this, but i think they went out of business...not enough interest

Short answer is yes. I’ve watched the development of these for years, even thought about strapping a go-pro to my head with video to the goggles. If it was possible to do the gps route then wondering why Garmin wouldn’t offer something, maybe the market is too small.

Thanks all. I really appreciate all the feedback! Let me describe the idea in more depth to give context to some of the comments and answer some of the questions.

This device would be a bit of a blend of the Oncourse goggles where the user locks in a direction and the Iolite system that could be mounted on any set of goggles to give the user feedback, so if you have a favorite pair, like Magic5s, no need to try another expensive goggle that might not fit well and it would be easily removeable, so no need to keep on when in the pool, only race day. Getting new goggles, you can move the device? A lot like a bike computer.

The user would wear a small GPS unit on the back of their head, tucked into the swim cap or on goggle strap. This should provide more accurate GPS data than the Garmin watches do since it shouldn’t be coming in and out of the water as much and have to reconnect, nor to the same depth in the water when it does since it’s the back of the head.

No downloading and preprogamming the swim course before the race. Some of the systems out there now require that. I agree with the comments here. That’s tough to do for a race. You would just need to lock in your first buoy before the gun goes off.

The device would have a light bar indicator mounted to one of the eyes to let you know if you are veering left or right and can correct accordingly. This would connect by a small wire to the GPS unit. I also like the side vibration idea littlefoot! When you make a turn, look up, sight the next buoy, lock it in and the system (probably by pushing a button) and repeat as needed to the finish.

I agree it’s a small market. Mainly triathletes, and a small sub population of us at that. That’s why I think that someone larger like Garmin hasn’t done anything. Everything they make and sell has functionality for a broader group than just triathletes. The Oncourse goggles meet all the requirements, but the unit is incorporated into their goggles and at $250 a pair it’s an expensive option that, personally I would only use on race day, and not in the pool meaning my everyday googles and race day goggles would not be the same. Form goggles could probably add the functionality easy enough. Personally I think their subscription cost model will not be well received vs just buying goggles.

I’m just an engineering geek triathlete that likes to tinker so even if I only sold 5% of triathletes it would be worth it to me, provided I can get around the existing Intellectual Property. Also thinking of making the code open source. I’m sure there are much smarter triathletes out there that would find ways to make it even better than what I could do.

As stated this already exists. Perhaps contact the marlin playtens people and see if you can buy out the company

Maybe the device doesn't have to be included in goggles but rather under a swim cap - using sounds to keep you straight (and even track your distance). No beeps means you're on the right heading - assuming you can input headings, etc.