Novice needs help with crazy project

have you considered one of those wrist watch TVs with an NTSC input, and one of those super-mini security cams ??

might be easier to waterproof integrated units like that compared to a custom setup like you described, and completely eliminates custom connectors from the problem !!

Will such a device be illegal in competition?

You must have a pretty big head if it takes 15" to get from to the back to one eye. But seriously I think that you could make the thing work without lengthening the cable. You don't really need to mount it on the back of your head because you don't need to see ahead all of the time, just once in a while. The real issue is that you need the camera to point up instead of forward like your eyes.

So you could mount the camera on the side of your goggles (at the temple) pointing up with the screen on front of the lens of one eye and a lens on the inside of the goggles to allow you to focus that close. Each time you take a breath the camera will be at the highest point on your head offering the best view forward. You would probably have to swim with your head rotated slightly to avoid the drag that immersing the camera would add. Pot the whole thing up solid with bathtub calk for waterproofing and you're good to go until the battery runs down.

Not yet!

Yeah, the cameras look small enough, but the receivers would be to large to mount infront of my face.

Your major problem is your swimming technique. When do you breathe? How much effort does it take to glance up at the bouy while you're taking a breath? Or are we talking snorkel here?

Good Luck! Rich

The ribbon cable is a standard in the electronics industry and different lengths are available; did not look to see if 15 inch length available. THe worst problem is reliably sealing all of the electronics from water and moisture.

Doesn't bathtub caulk use acetic acid to cure, like the original silicone RTV? If so, *do* *NOT* use that crap; it will corrode the electronics!

Use a waterproof GPS with earphone. My GPS is much too old to guess about how to get the voice to direct you around way points. Or maybe the display could be separated. Brings up the question of how/where are you going to put the display where it can be seen/focused on while swimming. Get bonus points for making the antenna look like a shark fin.

Crazy ideas........easy, making them work...........priceless.

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But, if it\'s patented, it\'ll be illegal for you to build one.

Illegal to sell it, or to profit by using it. But building one for fun? Don't think so.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

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Just seen the Navy training dolphins, so maybe they can lend you one home trained orka as a guide submarine. The bicycle stretch should be a sight to behold;^))

HTH

Have fun

Stanislaw.

From the 'keep it simple' school of design: Consider something like a periscope. Optics only, no electronics.

-- Paul Hovnanian mailto: snipped-for-privacy@Hovnanian.com

------------------------------------------------------------------ Porsche 928: 0 to c in 2.125 years, 2.435 light-years per mile^3 of gas

Greetings Jerry, I imagine that you've already considered the effect of the extra drag from the camera and display on your lap time compared to being off course and correcting. And since you have determined that the camera/display assembly will shorten lap times by keeping you on course then maybe the best camera to hack would be one of the cheap disposable digital cameras for sale at drugstores and similar places. These cameras will certainly have as few parts as possible, and may also be the lightest once the case is ditched. There are some cameras with fold out displays that may have cables with fewer conductors in order to make the swivel work. Have you thought about how well you can focus on a display only a 1/2 inch or so away from your eyeball? There may still be available glasses for video games that had tiny displays in them with optics that made the image appear to be some distance away. It could be that they used a standard video format, like NTSC for example. If so then you could hack these and use a cheap, tiny CMOS camera with lens and you would only need three wires. When swimming do you get off course because of currents in the water? Or because you pull to one side? If it's the latter maybe you could use a timer that would beep at the rate necessary to add extra strokes on one side or the other to train you to keep swimming straight. Good luck, ERS

There was significant debate about this point ~10 years ago with regards to cryptography. A good archive of it is at:

Unless "for fun" you mean "idle curiosity" then you're out of luck ... Of course, if noone knows you made something patent-infringing you're not going to get done over for doing so.

--
Michael Brown
Add michael@ to emboss.co.nz - My inbox is always open

Building one for education (to learn the art being taught in the patent) is fine. Building one to avoid paying for a widget? Very doubtful, but who is going to come after you?

--
  Keith

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It doesn\'t matter what you want to build it for, if you don\'t have
the patent owner\'s permission it\'s infringement.

For an overview, go to:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/infringe.htm

and for more detail:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/appxl_35_U_S_C_271.htm

Not true. It can legally be built to learn what is being taught in the patent and even extend the patent.

Check out the "education" exemption.

--
  Keith

On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 21:35:46 -0400, krw Gave us:

Not without permission dumbass.