Recon Instruments was a Canadian technology company that produced

smartglasses Smartglasses or smart glasses are eye or head-worn wearable computers that offer useful capabilities to the user. Many smartglasses include displays that add information alongside or to what the wearer sees. Alternatively, smartglasses are som ...

and wearable displays marketed by the company as "heads-up displays" for sports. (However, none of Recon's products contained a transparent display element delivering actual see-through capability and can thus be considered heads-up displays in the true meaning of the term.) Recon's products delivered live activity metrics,

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

maps, and notifications directly to the user's eye. Recon's first heads-up display offering was released commercially in October 2010, roughly a year and a half before Google introduced Google Glass. Recon received investments from companies including

Motorola Solutions Motorola Solutions, Inc., is an American video equipment, telecommunications equipment, software, systems and services provider that succeeded Motorola, Inc., following the spinoff of the mobile phone division into Motorola Mobility in 2011. Th ...

and

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

. It also partnered with enterprise software vendors in order to make its latest smart eyewear device, the Jet, suitable for industrial applications. On June 17, 2015, Recon was acquired by

. Recon then described itself as "an Intel company." In June 2017, Intel announced that all remaining Recon Instruments products were going to be discontinued by the end of the year. According to a Bloomberg report in October 2017, Intel had in fact completely closed its Recon Instruments division already in early summer 2017.

History

The technology behind Recon Instruments' products was born in September 2006 from an integrated

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

project. That project was undertaken by co-founders Dan Eisenhardt, Hamid Abdollahi, Fraser Hall, and Darcy Hughes at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

, Robert H. Lee Sauder School of Business. Recon Instruments incorporated in January 2008, operating from small office and lab spaces rented from the University of British Columbia. In April 2010, the company moved to its current headquarters in the

Yaletown Yaletown is an area of Downtown Vancouver, Canada, bordered by False Creek and Robson and Homer Streets. Formerly a heavy industrial area dominated by warehouses and rail yards, since the 1986 World's Fair it has been transformed into one of the ...

area of

downtown Vancouver Downtown Vancouver is the central business district and the city centre neighbourhood of Vancouver, Canada, on the northwestern shore of the Burrard Peninsula in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. It occupies most of the north shor ...

. As of March 2015, Recon is still led by co-founders Dan Eisenhardt and Hamid Abdollahi.

Discovery and prototyping

Recon's co-founders originally looked into developing a HUD product for

swimmers Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

. Eisenhardt, a competitive swimmer himself, believed a HUD would be a valuable replacement for the clock at the side of the pool. Eisenhardt and his fellow founders developed the idea while studying at the University of British Columbia. However, a patent already existed for swimming goggles with a heads-up display. Because of that patent and the challenges presented by the technology's small form factor and intended operating conditions, the team eventually chose to focus on a

winter sport Winter sports or winter activities are competitive sports or non-competitive recreational activities which are played on snow or ice. Most are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally, such games were only played in cold are ...

s product. The co-founders subsequently turned this school project into their first retail product, which was distributed globally in October 2010.

Investors

Recon has received investments from both venture-capital firms and other technology companies. In January 2012, Recon received $10 million in

Series A funding A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

from Vanedge Capital and Kopin Corporation. Vanedge Capital is a Canadian venture capital firm that specializes in "interactive entertainment and digital media businesses." Kopin Corporation is a U.S. firm known for microdisplays aimed at mobile electronics. In September 2013,

Intel Capital Intel Capital is a division of Intel Corporation, set up to manage corporate venture capital, global investment, mergers and acquisitions. Intel Capital makes equity investments in a range of technology startups and companies offering hardware, s ...

, the venture capital arm of

, announced that it had invested in Recon. Details of the deal were not disclosed. However, the announcement described wearables as "an area of significant focus" for Intel Capital, and it said the investment would allow Recon to "accelerate product development, marketing and global sales, as well as gain access to Intel Capital's expertise in manufacturing, operations and technology." In April 2014,

announced an investment in Recon. Motorola Solutions describes itself as a provider of communications equipment for "government and enterprise customers." The terms of the deal were not made public. In July 2014, Motorola Solutions demonstrated a Recon product as a piece of kit for

law enforcement personnel A law enforcement officer (LEO), or peace officer in North American English, is a Public sector, public-sector employee whose duties primarily involve the Law enforcement, enforcement of laws. The phrase can include campaign disclosure specialist ...

Intel acquisition

On June 17, 2015, Recon was acquired by

. The value of the deal was initially reported to be as high as

Can$ The Canadian dollar (symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style ...

175 million. However, this sum was not confirmed by Recon Instrument's Dan Eisenhardt, and was later generally considered inaccurate. After the acquisition, Recon stayed in Vancouver and planned to make use of Intel's technological resources in order to "develop smart device platforms for a broader set of customers and market segments."

Closing of Recon Instruments in 2017

In June 2017, it became known that Intel intended to discontinue all remaining Recon Instruments products, i.e., Recon Jet and Recon Jet Pro. Around the same time, Recon Instruments ceased all activities on both social media and its own website. According to a Bloomberg report in October 2017, Intel had in fact completely closed its Recon Instruments division already in early summer 2017.

Hardware

Recon's first products were smart goggles and what the company marketed (incorrectly) as " heads-up displays" aimed at the winter sports market. More recently, the company broadened its focus with the Jet, a smart eyewear device designed for activities like

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from t ...

and

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...

Technology overview

All of Recon Instrument's products were essentially head-worn, self contained mobile devices equipped with

and environmental sensors. A near-eye display was provided in the form of a single non-translucent (solid) micro display situated below and to the side of one eye. This required the wearer to glance down and to the side in order to read the screen contents. Recon's head-worn displays were therefore peripheral head-mounted displays rather than

head-up display A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD (), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a pilot being able to view informa ...

s in the common meaning of the term; much less were they able to deliver an augmented reality experience due to their lack of see-through capabilities.

Transcend

Recon's first commercial product, the Transcend, was released in October 2010. It was designed for

s and featured a small

LCD screen A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but i ...

embedded into a snow goggle frame by eyewear maker Zeal Optics, which is now a subsidiary of Maui Jim, Inc. The Transcend displayed data like

maps, temperature, speed, and altitude, and it allowed users to share that data. In 2011, the Transcend earned the Consumer Electronics Show's Best of Innovations award for Personal Electronics.

MOD and MOD Live

Recon's MOD and MOD Live heads-up displays were released in November 2011. Unlike the Transcend, the MOD and MOD Live were sold separately from snow goggles. Users could fit them into specially designed "Recon-Ready" goggles from eyewear makers including Uvex, Alpina, and Briko. Oakley also integrated the MOD Live into a specially designed snow goggle frame and marketed the resulting product as the Airwave. Both the MOD and MOD Live offered functionality similar to the Transcend's, but the MOD Live introduced the ability to connect to

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s via

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

. When connected to a user's smartphone, the MOD Live could display

caller ID Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call i ...

and SMS notifications.

Snow2

Introduced in November 2013, the Snow2 is Recon's latest standalone heads-up display. It features a faster processor than the MOD and MOD Live along with improved display brightness and contrast, longer battery life, 802.11a/b/g/n

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...

connectivity, and Made for iPhone (MFi) certification. Like the MOD Live, the Snow2 can connect to smartphones in order to display call and SMS notifications. It also lets users connect to

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

and track their friends using the GPS-enabled maps feature. The Snow2 heads-up display is designed to fit inside compatible eyewear from Oakley, Smith, Scott, Uvex, Alpina, Briko, and Zeal. Oakley has integrated the Snow2 into a snow goggle frame and markets the resulting product as the Airwave 1.5. Despite running an Android-based operating system, the Airwave 1.5 is sold by Apple through both Apple retail stores and the online Apple Store.

Jet

Unlike the Snow2, the Jet combines a heads-up display with a Recon-designed sunglass frame and polarized lenses. The Jet is aimed at activities like

and

rather than winter sports. Recon has also partnered with

enterprise software Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than individual users. Such organizations include businesses, schools, interest-based user groups, ...

firms

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...

and APX Labs with the aim of making Jet suitable for industrial applications in fields like

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

and oil-and-gas extraction.

, one of Recon's investors, has also demonstrated the Jet as law-enforcement equipment, as well. Built into the Jet are GPS connectivity as well as sensors to track metrics like speed, pace, distance, and elevation gain. Users can also connect third-party sensors via

ANT+ Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,0 ...

and smartphones via

. Like the MOD Live and Snow2, the Jet can display call and SMS notifications from user's smartphones. The Jet is powered by a 1 GHz processor with dual ARM Cortex-A9 cores. Its processor, display, and camera sit on the right side of the frame, while the battery sits on the left, evening out weight distribution. The battery is designed to be interchangeable, as well.

Software

ReconOS

Recon devices run ReconOS, an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

based on Android. ReconOS has a custom

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

designed for small displays. It shows live activity metrics and lets users share those metrics to social media. ReconOS also features GPS maps that display the locations of nearby friends and rotate depending on the user's head orientation. When a Recon device is paired with a smartphone, ReconOS can display call and SMS notifications, and it allows users to control the phone's music playback. ReconOS runs third-party applications, as well. Developers can write ReconOS apps using the Recon SDK.

Engage website

The Recon Engage website allows users to browse, display, and share activity metrics recorded with a Recon device. Users can also tag friends, share photos, download software updates and third-party applications for their Recon device, and see their activities mapped in an embedded

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

pane.

Engage mobile app

Available for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

and Android, the Recon Engage

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

lets users view and share their activity metrics, and it also allows compatible Recon devices to connect to smartphones. Connecting a Recon device to a smartphone enables features like friend tracking, call and SMS notification display, and music playback controls.

Recon Uplink

The Recon Uplink desktop application lets users register their Recon device, update the device's software, and sync data from the device to an Engage account. When used with Jet, the Uplink application can download photos from the device to the user's computer.

Recon SDK

Aimed at developers, the Recon SDK includes the tools, documentation, and samples necessary to write third-party applications for Recon's Jet and Snow2 devices. The Recon SDK API augments the Android API with extensions specific to Recon device hardware. Developers do not need to register or to pay a fee to access the Recon SDK.

App center

By visiting the app center on Recon's Engage website, users can download third-party apps for Recon's Jet and Snow2 products. Among the apps on offer are Refuel, a "smart nutrition" app that tells users when to eat and rehydrate during activities, and MyGoproRemote2, which makes it possible to control GoPro cameras using a Jet or Snow2.

Reception and criticism

The flagship product of Recon Instruments, Recon Jet, launched in 2015 to mixed reviews, with

Engadget ''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editor ...

calling the goggles "expensive fitness glasses with potential to be better". Reviewers praised Recon Instruments for bringing the first fitness-oriented head-worn displays to market. Frequently voiced criticisms were the high price point, insufficient battery life, wearer distraction and limited field of view by the non-see-through (solid) micro display, unsatisfactory GPS lag and accuracy, complex user interface, and general software problems.

References

{{Intel Aircraft instruments Augmented reality Technology companies of Canada Companies based in Vancouver Electronics companies established in 2008 Wearable computers Intel acquisitions Electronics companies disestablished in 2017 Defunct companies of British Columbia 2015 mergers and acquisitions 2008 establishments in British Columbia 2017 disestablishments in British Columbia