Read an article in Gizmodo about a led guided googles that claims to help swimmers on course. Any thoughts?
http://gizmodo.com/led-guides-in-these-goggles-keep-open-water-swimmers-on-1725601691
How would this not be cheating? Isn’t being a good sighter and straight swimming swimmer a skill that differentiates? Don’t they disqualify you for using a metronome for improving your running during the race?
Interesting though, more for training maybe?
Haven’t tried them. Seems like a handy device as long as you keep the battery charged.
However, I’m not confident how well it will work in race situations. You have to keep adjusting to new landmarks as you’re swimming. In a race, you’ll waste time stopping to recalibrate for multiple landmarks. Couple that with other swimmers bumping into and possibly swimming over you. That’s likely going to mess up your recalibration efforts.
One of the ways to make this work would be to be able to download the buoy coordinates into the google via computer on race morning after the crew set the buoys up (or the night before) therefore having an accurate representation of their location. However at that point I think they would become “illegal”…possibly.
Do you mean via GPS? Because these goggles use a different method for navigation.
Fascinating concept, but the devil will be in the details, i.e., how well will they work in the real world?
Yes, from a gps coordinate. I think the “other” guys were using gps data on their goggles. These guys don’t use that you say? I guess they can’t because it looks like a visual sighting system. Thanks for the heads up.
How would this not be cheating?
Because it’s not (yet) against the rules.
And you can use a metronome while running, as long it’s not a “personal audio device.” It can be watch. Just not an mp3 player, etc.
There are all sorts of technologies in use now that used to be skills that differentiated people. Power meters for pacing the bike. GPS pace for packing the run.