Recon Instruments
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Recon Labs, downtown Vancouver, BC
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| Industry | Smartglasses, Wearable computers |
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| Founded | January 17, 2008 |
| Founders | Dan Eisenhardt, Hamid Abdollahi, Fraser Hall, Darcy Hughes |
| Headquarters | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
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Area served
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North America, Europe, Japan, Australia |
| Parent | Intel Corporation |
| Website | ReconInstruments |
Recon Instruments is a Canadian technology company that produces smartglasses and heads-up displays for sports. Recon's products deliver live activity metrics, GPS maps, and notifications directly to the user's eye. Recon's first heads-up display offering was released commercially in October 2010, roughly a year and a half before Google introduced Google Glass.
Recon has received investments from companies including Motorola Solutions and Intel. It's also partnered with enterprise software vendors in order to make its latest smart eyewear device, the Jet, suitable for industrial applications.
On June 17, 2015, Recon was acquired by Intel for $175M. Recon now describes itself as "an Intel company."
The technology behind Recon Instruments' products was born in September 2006 from an integrated MBA project. That project was undertaken by co-founders Dan Eisenhardt, Hamid Abdollahi, Fraser Hall, and Darcy Hughes at the University of British Columbia, Robert H. Lee Sauder School of Business.
Recon Instruments incorporated in January 2008, operating from small office and lab spaces rented from the University of British Columbia. In April 2010, the company moved to its current headquarters in the Yaletown area of downtown Vancouver. As of March 2015, Recon is still led by co-founders Dan Eisenhardt and Hamid Abdollahi.
Recon's co-founders originally looked into developing a HUD product for swimmers. Eisenhardt, a competitive swimmer himself, believed a HUD would be a valuable replacement for the clock at the side of the pool. Eisenhardt and his fellow founders developed the idea while studying at the University of British Columbia. However, a patent already existed for swimming goggles with a heads-up display. Because of that patent and the challenges presented by the technology's small form factor and intended operating conditions, the team eventually chose to focus on a winter sports product. The co-founders subsequently turned this school project into their first retail product, which was distributed globally in October 2010.
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