A company is offering perfectly-fitting swim goggles with 3D technology.
North Carolina-based THEMAGIC5 has opened up a service designed to provide the most perfectly fit custom swimming goggles possible through a combination of 3D scanning and printing technologies.
This solution is not necessarily for everyone, but is well suited for anyone who swims at high speeds. This could be professionals in competitive events, or simply powerful swimmers.
The problem being solved is something I’ve personally experienced many times when swimming: the force of oncoming water pushes the goggles off your face. This is a rather unpleasant experience in recreational swimming, let alone in a competitive situation.
The usual solution is to tighten up the band so that the goggles press down much harder, and thus are more difficult to displace. But that can be painful and usually results in an unpleasant goggle-like pattern on your face afterwards.
THEMAGIC5 takes an entirely different approach.
There’s a three-step process to obtaining custom swim goggles. First, you must download their app, which is available on both iOS and Android stores. Then, after a purchase, you use the app to scan your face.
THEMAGIC5 is leveraging the increasing presence of high-resolution depth cameras on modern smartphones. Normally these are used for security functions to unlock the device only for the owner, but the hardware is still there and can be used by apps like THEMAGIC5’s.
This facial scan is then automatically sent to THEMAGIC5 for processing. They use the data to tweak a base 3D model of the goggles to reshape it to fit the scan.
Finally, the goggles are 3D printed by THEMAGIC5 and fitted with a normal head strap. Production time is five days, then shipping within the US is five days; international shipping is 10-14 days, according to THEMAGIC5’s website. That’s pretty quick to obtain a perfectly-fitting set of swim goggles.
THEMAGIC5 offers half a dozen different styles, including configurations for either indoor or outdoor swimming, as well as different tints for the lenses and colors for the head straps. They provide a few bundle options if you want several styles, and you can even reorder a new set using your previously uploaded 3D scan.
Prices for the different individual models range from US$55 to US$75, and you can save more if you buy several in a bundle.
Aside from being a great product, this is an incredible example of what’s possible for a niche application of mass customization. Let’s think about this for a moment: you can obtain a custom-designed object that fits perfectly for under US$100 within two weeks? That’s quite amazing.
This should be done on many more personal products.
Via THEMAGIC5 (Hat tip to Benjamin)
