There's interesting potential in Hindsight
Posted 11.10.2008 at 10:15 am
9 Comments
Hindsight
Billy May
Looks like Lance Armstrong might have a new pair of sunglasses for his comeback tour. The blogs lit up in the past few weeks with attention surrounding a pair of Nike sunglasses that increase a rider's peripheral vision from the standard 180 degrees to up to 240. Given Lance's pension for wearing yellow, the new specs could come in handy. Only problem is that Nike isn't actually making the glasses. Confused? We dug into the mystery.
If it looks like a Nike product and has marketing material that looks like a Nike product, then it must be ... a student with too much time on his hands and a working knowledge of Photoshop? It ends up that Nike has nothing to do with the seemingly impressive technology. Our contact with Nike confirmed that the company is asking the rogue inventor, Billy May, to remove the swoosh branding from his design. May is a self-proclaimed broke, unemployed recent college graduate from Washington and Lee University with little engineering background, who's looking for his big break. Hope this helps.
So if Nike isn't involved, does that mean the glasses won't work? Not so fast. May has created two prototypes that don't look as pretty as the mockup but provide a proof of concept. With a lens (possibly a Fresnel lens) with high-power negative focal length on the peripheral portion of the glasses, wearers can cram more into their peripheral vision. The glasses are like "bifocals for their peripheral vision." The tradeoff is a slight distortion of that peripheral view. An annoyance to a guy on a Sunday stroll, but perhaps an acceptable side effect for those in sports and the military, where identifying motion is more important than any details.
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Entertainment & Gaming, The Score, Brett Zarda, design, prototypes, sports scienceSound too good to be true? May thought the same, but a prior art search and some old-fashioned digging hasn't found anything to deter his quest. All he needs now is some big-shot sports manufacturer with a hefty R&D budget to help develop the concept. Or maybe a consumer advocate to push for said financial backing. Lance, you busy?
Like these shades? Check out the top recreation innovations of the year—part of PopSci's 2008 Best of What's New awards.
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Why can't I come up with stuff like this?! This could have some significant applications.
Great idea, hope this gets him attention!
Looks really weird I think. Just seems strange they are just made for "shoes"now sunglasses!?!
sweeeeeeeett!! that is so awsome.
so now teachers really do have eyes... well... nearly in the back of thier head.
"Given Lance's pension for wearing yellow, the new specs could come in handy."
I expect better word usage from such an authority as PopSci.
pen⋅chant [pen-chuhnt; Fr. pahn-shahn] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
a strong inclination, taste, or liking for something: a penchant for outdoor sports.
pen⋅sion [pen-shuhn; Fr. pahn-syawn for 3] Show IPA Pronunciation
noun, plural -sions [-shuhnz; Fr. -syawn for 3] Show IPA Pronunciation ,
verb
–noun
1. a fixed amount, other than wages, paid at regular intervals to a person or to the person's surviving dependents in consideration of past services, age, merit, poverty, injury or loss sustained, etc.: a retirement pension.
2. an allowance, annuity, or subsidy.
3. (in France and elsewhere in continental Europe)
a. a boardinghouse or small hotel.
b. room and board.
–verb (used with object)
4. to grant or pay a pension to.
5. to cause to retire on a pension (usually fol. by off).
Lance's [what???] for wearing yellow??? I don't get it.
smartarse...Ha HA!
could be propension(inclination, disposition)-although a mispell- and the yellow is the color worn by the leader of tour de france which, being the leader, could gain advantage in detecting competitor's moves behind him.
Better now?
By the way cool idea. We'll see where it goes from here!
Love this - where do we get them?!
Nike sunglasses, a good idea of its design, but I think its appearance is not beautiful, I think it would be more appropriate for boys to wear. Incidentally, this store has a nice sun glasses, I went to this site to buy the three glasses, it's cheap, good quality, the most important thing is their service good
www.firmoo.com/