Submersivity
Stage 05Interface

Put the next target inside a pair of swim goggles

A custom Android application on Vuzix Smart Swim goggles shows the nearest target's class, range, heading cue, and a reduced map of the basin.

Why this stage exists

Perception is useless to a swimmer holding a mesh bag unless it becomes a direction and a distance. Vuzix Smart Swim is an Android wearable with a monocular full-colour display and wireless connectivity, so it can be reprogrammed from a lap-counting device into a guidance display.

How it was done

  1. 1

    Select the next target by nearest neighbour

    Given the set of mapped targets and the current position, the system picks the target with the smallest Euclidean distance, then displays that distance and the relative planar bearing, computed as atan2(y_target − y, x_target − x) − ψ, so the arrow points where the swimmer should turn.

  2. 2

    Show three things and nothing else

    The head-up display carries a compass-like pointer to the nearest target, a range readout in metres, and a reduced map of Peter Street Basin with the current position and previously registered detections. Raw detection output stays off the display.

  3. 3

    Stream target updates over Wi-Fi

    The goggles receive basin-coordinate target updates from the host laptop and re-render the cues at roughly 5–10 Hz, which is enough for real-time guidance at swimming speed.

  4. 4

    Respect the monocular display

    Because the display is monocular, it leaves part of the natural field of view intact. In open water that is a safety property, not a limitation, and it argues for compact cues over dense overlays.

Head-up display through the Vuzix Smart Swim lens: a compass arrow, a 4.1 m range readout, the class label OTHER, and a small basin map.
The XR head-up display in operation: heading arrow, 4.1 m range readout, target class, and a miniaturised Peter Street Basin map with registered detections — all inside the small monocular display window.

Decisions and trade-offs

Action-oriented, not information-rich
Earlier aquatic head-up systems such as SafeSwim streamed overhead views for situational awareness. Here the display is a bridge from perception to physical retrieval: where to go, how far, what class.
Host inference today, on-device tomorrow
Keeping inference on the laptop made the first deployment tractable; exporting the detector to TFLite for the goggles' own Android processor would remove the laptop from simple detection tasks entirely.

Where the code lives

SmartSwimHUD/

Android application for Vuzix Smart Swim: network client for target updates, compass and range rendering, and the reduced basin map view.

What still bites

  • Live position relies on heading plus dead reckoning, so the arrow degrades as drift accumulates.
  • A monocular display in bright outdoor water constrains how much text is legible at a glance.