Building a rig to make smart swim goggles smarter

The challenge

In 2019, Vancouver-based company FORM developed the world’s first smart swim goggles that collect real-time metrics on a swimmer’s stroke rate, distance per stroke, pace, heart rate and more. For the next generation of their swim goggles, the company wants to incorporate data on head movement when doing the front crawl. Swimmers are interested in this metric to improve their technique and speed, and to reduce injury. 

FORM asked us to find a way to validate their algorithm with a controlled test rig that mimics head pitch and head roll. 

FORM

Our process and the challenges we faced

We met with the client to understand their needs and requirements, from the “must haves” to the “nice to haves.” From there, we identified potential solutions, tested them out and finetuned them over multiple iterations. This included choosing the motors, developing the user interface, writing the code that runs the motors and integrating it all together. 

Throughout this process we drew collectively on the knowledge we’ve acquired from our courses and co-op positions, as well as a lot of independent research. 

While we worked on everything as a group, different team members took on more responsibility in areas to reflect their particular expertise or interests, be that mechanical, electrical or general coding. 

As in any project, there were challenges, including an issue early on with cantilevering. Other challenges came from areas where we didn’t have as much prior experience, although this was also a great opportunity to learn new material. 

Our project’s future

We’ll be submitting our rig, its design and instructions on how to make and use it to our client. This will enable them to validate their algorithm and make adjustments if needed so they can incorporate the new metric into their next generation of high-end swim goggles.