Welcome to The Tech Race.
Smart glasses that have created a new dimension for cyclists.
Get to know the USA Cycling Road Team's
secret to success.
(CYCLING SMART GLASSES)
These intelligent glasses allow cyclists
to know their power, speed, oxygen level and heart rate
whilst peddling, without looking away from the road.
A tiny hi-tech screen
is the key to making training more effective.
It will enable the athlete to have access in real time
to the data they're tracking.
With the cyclists, we're tracking speed, cadence,
power, and all the critical information
they need to improve the ride,
and experience it in a whole new way.
(UNITED STATES OF AMERICA)
(LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA)
At the Los Angeles velodrome,
we attend a training session with the USA Cycling Road Team,
the first to put these glasses through their paces
at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
In the past, we've been using things that make us
take our eyes off the road, off of what we're doing
and assess and then get back to focusing on the task.
You have the ability to change the focus
and place that exactly where you want that information
and then programme ahead of time
exactly what information is being displayed.
In the past, cycling computers were used that could provide
biometric data after a session, hours later,
once it was transferred to a computer and analysed.
Based on the technology used in a combat pilot's helmet,
these intelligent glasses have a powerful optical reader.
The information can be examined by coaches and athletes
in real time.
(SARAH HAMMER, USA TRACK CYCLING TEAM,
(TOOK HOME A SILVER MEDAL AT THE OLYMPICS GAMES RIO 2016)
To somebody, a casual observer,
they might just look like regular glasses,
but what transforms is, as soon as you put them on your face,
suddenly I have any of the information that I want.
You'd think it looks really small, but it's actually
quite a large display. So the entire, upper-right quadrant
is basically in your vision.
The nice thing is, you can see it really clearly. It's nice.
It'll show you the data, data over time,
but if you look beyond it, you don't even notice it.
So, it's really easy to shift your vision ever so slightly,
a few millimetres, and you see all this data right here.
In a display on the upper right-hand third
of the right lens,
cyclists can see essential data in real time.
Also, coaches can determine where an athlete
is wasting energy and how they can be more efficient.
This is a little screen
that is giving me all the data.
If the screen's off, it almost looks
like a tiny water drop or a scratch on the screen,
but when it's on, it is...
It is the perfect size.
It even speaks to you, which is great, so you don't have to -
like with a power meter - click something.
"What's my power?" - click. "OK, now I see it."
With this, you don't have to do that.
It's fluid. It's a natural feeling to it,
a more natural way of training.
(LENS)
(FRAMES)
(ARMATURE)
The glasses are synchronised with a mobile application,
allowing for the use of the phone's GPS.
The app is super easy to use.
Essentially, you fire it up, look for the sensors available,
you pair them up, and once you have that,
you basically select what screens you want to look at
in your heads-up display, and if you want
to listen or not to specific coaching prompts.
Once you have selected that, you click "start",
put the phone away, and you're ready to roll.
This allows track athletes to use power. Before, we couldn't,
because we just couldn't look at a power meter.
Now that we can see power,
we're making bigger training gains.
The USA Cycling Road Team
helped in the development of this technology,
ensuring the device offers essential data to athletes
without distraction.
The eyewear works like a smartwatch.
Our application that we developed handles connecting
to all the different sensors, so we connect to ANT+ and
BLE sensors, and we pull that data into our app
and push it up to the headset.
In the headset, you see your live data.
We're also storing that data on the cellphone,
so you can save your ride.
Once you have a ride saved, you can go into what we call
"ghost rider" mode, where,
if you go out for the same ride again
you can track your performance against previous rides.
We also allow updating of saved ride data to the cloud.
Team USA is always looking for areas that we can improve,
that culture of improvement, and something like
wearable technology, it improves that category.
Technology lets us see the small details
that put a cyclist on the podium
in the blink of the eye.
(THE TECH RACE)