Cosmo, a French specialist in mobility safety, is offering a new accessory in addition to its “Ride”, its connected fire. It is not this time a device to be better seen. On the contrary, it is a question of seeing better, or more.
The Cosmo Vision are the first connected glasses from the manufacturer. Intended for users of bicycles, electric scooters and any other means of micro-mobility, they display information on their activity or the direction to follow in the right part of the glass.
Cosmo Vision: how does it work?
Cosmo did not become a specialist in glass overnight. The young company called on a specialist in the matter, also French, Microoled.
Thus, it is the ActiveLook technology, from this Grenoble company, which is at work in the Vision. This is the second consumer product equipped with this display technology, after the Evad-1 glasses, from Julbo, released two years ago.
Concretely, the Cosmo Vision are a priori classic sunglasses, with the difference that they project inside the right lens a head-up display with indications of the activity in progress.
At Cosmo, there is the choice between a bike ride or a scooter ride. Please note, these are not augmented or virtual reality glasses, but a process that in many ways resembles what is offered in the automotive industry.
Of course, it is up to the user to choose what he wants to see displayed in the upper corner of his right lens. Speed, kilometers traveled, average speed or duration of activity, the data is quite similar to what most trackers offer.
But the great singularity of Cosmo, in particular compared to the Julbo model, is that it incorporates a navigation system. It is based on the GPS chip of the smartphone (mainly for a question of the weight of the glasses, and autonomy), but allows you to follow a route using direction arrows displayed at the appropriate time.
The advantage of this type of product is twofold: comfort and safety. In theory, it is no longer necessary to take your eyes off the road to look at your smartphone hanging from your handlebars. This also helps protect your phone against theft or possible breakage during a fall.
Careful manufacturing, and other good ideas
Let’s move quickly on the design (which will please or not) to emphasize the impression of solidity that emerges when you open the box of Cosmo Vision. Sporty, the glasses are both robust and well finished.
Even better, Cosmo gives the impression of having thought of all the details, above all avoiding the pitfall of weight. In fact, insofar as they are not conventional glasses and they incorporate a display device, as well as a battery, it was necessary to reduce their weight as much as possible so that it would not be feel out of proportion.
With 40 grams on the scale, the glasses are certainly heavier than average, but easy to wear. After a few seconds during which it is necessary to get used to the feeling of weight concentrated on the nose, the Cosmo Vision is quickly forgotten.
Finally, we also appreciated the care given to certain details such as the use of malleable plastic tabs around the nose. By adjusting their spacing, they adapt easily to all nasal morphologies, thus facilitating their maintenance.
Getting started: first gnashing of teeth
To be able to use the Cosmo Vision, it is necessary to have the Cosmo Connected application. However, it was at this precise moment that our experience of the product took a much less pleasant turn. Why ?
First of all, because the application suffers from several bugs, some of which are quite gross. An example: at the end of a session, the window allowing you to end the activity systematically disappears, effectively preventing you from stopping the exercise.
We also encountered several problems when it comes to switching from one window to another, which in most cases requires closing the application before relaunching it.
Then, because it lacks, in our opinion, some fairly basic features such as the synchronization of its activities with essential platforms or social networks dedicated to sport such as Strava or Komoot.
It also lacks an automatic “wake up” function of the product in the event of motion detection. For now, it is necessary to launch each activity manually.
Finally, our biggest complaint concerns the most ambitious part of the product: the navigation. It doesn’t quite live up to expectations. If the operation as such, once the glasses on the nose, is satisfactory, this is not the case for the choice of routes, not always relevant and especially for the search function.
For example, when we ask Cosmo’s navigation to take us to the Eiffel Tower, the application offers us the street of the Eiffel Tower… in Tallahassee, Florida, before suggesting the Vinci car park. ” Eiffel Tower “.
On this point, regulars of Google Maps, Waze and other Maps will have a hard time digesting the approximations of Cosmo, which uses the Here Maps system here.
We asked Cosmo about these absences and the many bugs we encountered. According to the brand, these are known and listed, they should be fixed in the coming weeks via two updates.
As for the navigation, it too should change quite quickly, according to Cosmo.
This somewhat degraded experience is all the more damaging as Cosmo really brings its mark in terms of software, in particular compared to the Julbo model.
Like its Jura counterpart, it uses gesture controls to switch from one screen to another, but unlike the glasses specialist, it offers more customization in the menus.
Finally, let’s end this part with a strong point, a last really interesting feature specific to the Comso model: its compatibility with the Cosmo Ride connected light, the accessory that has made the reputation of the manufacturer.
On the road, what does it look like?
In use, it appears that the Cosmo Vision are rather easy to use and relatively comfortable. As for precisely looking at the head-up display, it does not require any particular effort. As the road passes, the eye becomes accustomed to this additional information and the cyclist easily understands that he no longer needs to take his eyes off the road to get an overview of his speed or mileage.
The good surprise, compared to the Julbo model that we had the opportunity to take in hand at the time of its announcement, is also that the Cosmo solution simply works better.
The system is reactive, there is no latency between what our counter indicates and the speed displayed in the glasses, a big black spot of the Evad-1. The same goes for navigation, and it is on this point that the glasses prove to be the most effective.
Ultimately, even if on certain aspects the product retains an experimental side, the progress made in two years is considerable.
Verdict
The results of these Cosmo Vision are necessarily mixed. On the manufacture and the material quality of the product, there is not much to say, everything is serious and successful.
On the software part, on the other hand, we are a little stuck between what we have seen, that is to say a product that is not finished at the level software and the manufacturer’s note of intent that promises an update and bug fix shortly.
But, even if we place our trust in Cosmo, there is one point on which the manufacturer will have a hard time convincing: the price.
The Cosmo Vision are sold for 489 euros, which seems really expensive when, in the end, it is essentially a question of doing without a smartphone holder on the handlebars.