Final Post

Being an avid swimmer my entire life, creating a new invention that could make their lives easier was very important to me. I feel like swimming is a sport that is often overlooked, and I think that Swim Vision goggles could attract more people to the sport. My idea is to invent a pair of goggles that can track a swimmer’s heart rate, number of calories burned, number of laps swum, can alert swimmers when they are approaching a wall, allow swimmers to view their race from a bird’s eye view as they are swimming, and allow them to share their results with other swimmers within their race. There would be two different modes, “Practice Mode” and “Compeition Mode.” This is very complex, so there needs to be a lot of different technologies integrated into this creation in order to make the vision a reality.

            Initially, I only had the idea for the goggles to be able to track progress and attributes such as calories burned and laps swum. However, after learning about the different topics in lecture, such as networks, databases and hardware, I was inspired to expand my idea. Learning about networks and cloud computing gave me the idea to allow swimmers to share their results with other people they are racing, databases gave me the idea for a way to organize the vast amounts of information, and the hardware gave me the idea to implement videos so that swimmers could watch their race while they are swimming and see where there competitors are.

            In order to make this dream a reality, numerous things would need to happen. It would be very difficult for all of these systems to be stored in a tiny pair of goggles, so there would have to be a lot of nanotechnology involved, which can end up getting expensive. Another big obstacle that would have to be overcome is the ability to make all of these technologies waterproof. This could be particularly difficult when it comes to the video technologies (the ALU and video card). This could be very expensive, too. The video camera situation would be a challenge, too; it could be hard to have the video be displayed “in real time” in the goggles, but I think this problem could be solved by implementing similar technologies that are used to make electronic video glasses possible.

            Some of the more simpler things that could be done to make this dream a reality would be to use bytes and bytes to allow the text to be displayed on a screen in the goggles, create a website that the goggles could be connected to so that a swimmer’s results could be displayed on them and they can “network” with their competitors, and create a database that stores all of the information in the goggles. The goggles would run on batteries and they would need to be charged after every use.

            I admit that this is extremely far-fetched, but this class has taught me that endless possibilities technology grants our society. Who knew that a pair of goggles could have so much potential? Before this class, I never knew how many different technologies went into certain products. This class has allowed me to grow so much; it has expanded my imagination and opened my eyes to all of the different technologies that are used in everyday life, which are two of the most important skills I will need to take with me when I venture into the real world.