HindSight cycling glasses may be another entry on the tea towel of famous Scottish inventions – Scotsman comment

As an Olympic champion, cyclist Callum Skinner is well used to success in the sporting arena.

It may not seem like it but Callum Skinner could be looking at the camera in this photograph (Picture: HindSight/PA Wire)

Now it seems he may also have struck gold off the track too with the invention of glasses that enable cyclists to see behind them without turning round.

The award-winning ‘HindSight’ glasses, developed with physicist Alex Macdonald, use angled lenses and mirrors to enable cyclists to maintain the perfect aerodynamic position while also monitoring who is in their slipstream. The design is such that the forward view remains in the wearer’s peripheral vision while they are looking back.

As any cyclist or fan of the sport can attest, knowing when an opponent tucked in just behind is about to launch an attack can be absolutely vital to the outcome of a race.

And it could help other athletes too. Runners have similar issues to cyclists, while for rowers, whose back is towards the direction of travel, it would enable them to see where they are going while maintaining perfect balance.

There should also be a market for a pair of HindSights among many bicycle commuters as it is clearly useful to know when vehicles are about to overtake and how close they will pass.

And who knows, perhaps teachers of unruly children – when they return to class – secret agents and others who like the idea of being able to covertly monitor whatever is going on behind them will want a pair too.

After all, who would not like to have – almost literally – “eyes in the back of their head”? Sounds like it could be another addition to the famous tea-towel of Scottish inventions.

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