Wrist Mounted Computer

[jhnmdahl]

What about the SP "GALILEO SOL"? What does the Shearwater do that the "GALILEO SOL" can't do?

I don't know much about the Galileo Sol, but after a taking a quick (and somewhat superficial) look at one it does look like a neat computer. I suspect the wrist mount cobalt will be very similar, but most likely in color and higher resolution. After a quick check-out of a Galileo Sol, I did notice:

The Galileo is $1k, whereas I just picked up a Perdix for $700
The Shearwaters are all hi-res color instead of blocky monochrome LCD like the Galileo
Galileo uses ZHL-8 instead of ZHL-16
Shearwater layout and screen customization seems more intuitive and looks better to my eye than Galileo (and to others - see e.g., http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/co...-too-much-advice-post6940205.html#post6940205)
Galileo is under recall for experiencing screen freezes: SCUBAPRO - Galileo Sol and Luna Recall
Shearwater's demos on their website made me comfortable with the computer before even buying one, whereas it's harder to find that kind of info or community support for the Sol.

But (and this is big for some people), the Galileo offers optional air integration, whereas Shearwater does not and doesn't intend to. I could see this alone pushing people to the Galileo sol (or to the upcoming wrist-mount Atomic Cobalt).

John

 

[BoltSnap]

I don't know much about the Galileo Sol, but after a taking a quick (and somewhat superficial) look at one it does look like a neat computer. I suspect the wrist mount cobalt will be very similar, but most likely in color and higher resolution. After a quick check-out of a Galileo Sol, I did notice:

The Galileo is $1k, whereas I just picked up a Perdix for $700
The Shearwaters are all hi-res color instead of blocky monochrome LCD like the Galileo
Galileo uses ZHL-8 instead of ZHL-16
Shearwater layout and screen customization seems more intuitive and looks better to my eye than Galileo (and to others - see e.g., http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/co...-too-much-advice-post6940205.html#post6940205)
Galileo is under recall for experiencing screen freezes: SCUBAPRO - Galileo Sol and Luna Recall
Shearwater's demos on their website made me comfortable with the computer before even buying one, whereas it's harder to find that kind of info or community support for the Sol.

But (and this is big for some people), the Galileo offers optional air integration, whereas Shearwater does not and doesn't intend to. I could see this alone pushing people to the Galileo sol (or to the upcoming wrist-mount Atomic Cobalt).

John

SP bought an Austrian dive computer maker few weeks ago and I predict that SP will revamp its dive computer product line to have all the most up to date features soon. In terms of the readability of the Sol or Luna, I honestly never heard any complaints from all of my friends who use them.

The Sol/Luna have outstanding battery life and a huge computer dive memory in addition to easy to find user replaceable computer battery.

It would personally consider the Shearwater computer if it had an option for AI but it doesn't.

 

[jd950]

So, with Huish owning Liquivision, who has just introduced a new wrist computer, and with Huish distributing Suunto dive computers, and since this wrist computer thread is going on three years old now with no apparent progress, I am guessing Atomic is not going to be producing a wrist computer, right? I am fine with that. Just seeking clarification of what seems likely. Besides, if Atomic is planning on selling a wrist computer and hasn't gotten it figured out after three years of work, maybe it isn't something we would want anyway.

Well, that sounded harsher than I meant it....but really, Atomic isn't really going to make one of these, right? I mean, I appreciate product testing but....

 

[RonR]

The Atomic wrist computer is very much on the way. Development has been extended beyond original plans in that we decided to incorporate several new technologies and build a more advanced product, rather than just replicate the Cobalt in a wrist version. Our plans have not changed because of the Suunto distribution agreement or Liquivision’s acquisition, and Liquivision’s wrist computer is quite different. Atomic doesn’t want to announce products until they are actually ready to be sold, so I can’t release any details, but we are pretty excited about this product.

 

[jd950]

Okay, if you say so. Sorry for my earlier skepticism, but looking at your posts in the thread:


January, 2014: I can't give you a time frame, though. Atomic doesn't like to promote products before they are ready to ship.

March, 2014: …in a couple of months and there could be some interesting developments.

August, 2014: There are some discussions happening about strategy and timing, but there isn't anything I can say at the moment.

November, 2014: We just got the go-ahead to light the afterburners on this, so while I can't give a timeline I can say we are working as hard as we can to make this happen.

March, 2015: …the Cobalt wrist is being worked on very hard. Atomic does not want to announce anything about a product until they know it is ready to ship

May, 2015: Well, I will say that I'm very excited about the design

July, 2015: There is a wrist computer coming from Atomic, it's based on the Cobalt user interface and electronics, with some enhancements.

October, 2015: we are testing, and there will be a lot of testing as we want this product to be extremely reliable

December, 2015: testing both hardware and firmware, were incorporating a lot of suggestions from this forum and from our users. The user interface is a big focus for us, we want it to be completely intuitive, particularly considering the increase in capabilities with this unit.

February, 2016: Development has been extended beyond original plans in that we decided to incorporate several new technologies and build a more advanced product, rather than just replicate the Cobalt in a wrist version….we are pretty excited about this product.

I suppose I can see why it is taking a long time since it appears a computer was designed and made it to hardware and firmware testing and then the entire design was scrapped in favor of something completely different. I would guess you are probably another year or two from producing something, assuming no new technologies or market issues.

I hope it works out someday.

 

[RonR]

Yep, that’s all pretty accurate. March/ April 2014 was when Liquivision started seriously being integrated into the Huish group. We actually had a Cobalt wrist version ready to prototype and test at the time, but put it on hold to work out how we were going to change to adopt some of the new technology. Turns out there was a lot we wanted to change to make a dramatically better product. There were about 10 months of business strategy related (not technical) delays in there (see November 2014), integrating all this growth was not easy. But for the last 16 months we have been working full bore on this revised version. Believe me, no one is more frustrated about the time this has taken than I am. In this day of apps, we tend to think in terms of short development cycles and knocking things out on a laptop, but this is bare metal engineering, hardware and firmware, for a dedicated real time system. It’s far more difficult and time consuming than writing applications, and requires a lot more testing. We’re testing now, and the project is very much alive.

-Ron

 

[Oldbear]

I am glad it is not dead...hope it comes soon. I will keep waiting.

 

[scubadada]

Hi Ron,

We all appreciate your replies. Will the Atomic Aquatics wrist computer run your proprietary RGBM decompression algorithm or something else like Buhlmann ZHL-16C with GF? Developments in the AI wrist computer area have been slow. Many of us have also been waiting to see the Liquivision Omnix, an AI version of the H3 from Scubapro, or, even holding our breath for an AI Perdix.

Thanks in advance, Craig

 

[RonR]

Initially the wrist model will have the same dual (“folded” and fully iterative) RGBM algorithms that are in the Cobalt console. High on my list of desired firmware upgrades is including other algorithm options. The Cobalt’s architecture was always intended to allow for multiple algorithms, and Buhlmann would be relatively easy to incorporate- functionally it’s little different from the folded version we have now.

 

[BoltSnap]

dual (“folded” and fully iterative) RGBM algorithms

Are there any references available to read to understand what the terms "folded" and "fully iterative" mean in this context please?

Will your new AI Wrist computer have "technical" capability?