Lecture Post 2: Hardware

MY IDEA: Swim Vision allows swimmers to literally watch their own race from an aerial view so that they can monitor the progress and speed of every single swimmer in their race. There is a tiny monitor in the goggle lenses that display the race being recorded by a camera positioned somewhere above the pool. The video being played in the lenses will be transparent so that the swimmers can still see where he/she is going. If the screen is too distracting, however, swimmers have the option to turn off the video or they will receive alerts that flashing across the screen with messages such as “approaching wall” or “flip turn in 5 yards.” Swim Vision will have two different modes, “Competition Mode” and “Practice Mode.”

LECTURE:

            My complex idea would not be made possible if it were not for the implementation of some hardware devices. The two main pieces of hardware that we have learned about that would most benefit my invention would be a video card and an arithmetic logic unit (ALU). The video card would allow for the videos of the race to play within the goggle lenses while the goggles are in Competition Mode and the arithmetic logic unit would serve to perform the calculations to compute the number of laps swum, heart rate and number of calories burned while the goggles are in Practice Mode.

            Although the video card is capable of serving many functions, ranging from accelerating the rendering of three-dimensional scenes to two-dimensional graphics, I think it would best benefit Swim Vision goggles if used to send graphical information to a video display device such as a monitor or projector or in this case, the goggle lenses. Because the goggles are small in size, the video card would have to be, too. A card that is used for a “small form factor” Personal Computer would have to be used for these goggles. The video card would also have to be in a thin water-proof casing, as would the rest of the electronic pieces, so that it does not get damaged or harm the swimmer.

            An arithmetic logic unit (ALU) would significantly have to be used in the manufacturing of Swim Vision goggles so that it could fulfill the functions of the Practice Mode. These include calculating the number of calories burned, the swimmer’s heart rate and the sum and/or average number of laps swum. Arithmetic logic units are also capable of maintaining timers, which is especially important in the swim world, so the ALU could also allow the goggles to calculate the average time it takes for a swimmer to complete a lap or laps.