Heads-up displays come to paintball goggles
Intel-owned wearables firm produces safety visor with a built-in screen.
Recon Instruments, the Canadian wearables outfit purchased by Intel last year, has released a heads-up display for paintball enthusiasts. Much in the same way Recon partnered with Oakley to produce its Airwave sports goggles, the firm has teamed up with Empire Paintball to create the Empire EVS. The device uses the game guts as the Airwave — a technology known as Snow2 — albeit in a new mask that's designed to withstand the rigors of paint-based conflict.
According to the firm, the heads-up display will be able to show battle-critical information like ammo counts, field maps and teammate locations. The device itself is running a version of Android and is packing a 1GHz dual-core processor, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFI as well as GPS. The mask, meanwhile, comes with dual-pane lenses that prevent internal fogging and a lower skirt that encourages ball bouncing.
We don't know yet how much the device will set you back, and the company has also been a little tight-lipped about when we can expect shipments to begin. For the former, Oakley's Airwave retails for around $649, while the Snow2 smart glass insert on its own is $399, so we'd guess $500 is a reasonable amount of cash to start saving.
