My wife and I were diving the other day and I wanted to know her po2. i could see her HUD from the side and calculated her po2 by the usual count of pulses myself without having to ask her, two green pulses, 1.2, but I had to be at just the right angle to see it directly or reflected in her mask. Then it occurred to me, what if the LED was visible from the front of the HUD as well, showing in both directions so one could view one's buddy's po2 easily when facing them? Of course different HUDs convey different information but it seems that just about any HUD could be designed to be easily read from a distance by one's buddy, allowing for the communication of the same information that is conveyed to the diver to be conveyed to others more readily. It does not seem like this would be difficult for a manufacturer to add. I thought I'd throw the idea out there and see if others would find it helpful. On the Shearwater HUD it seems like it would be as easy as adding three LED's to the opposite side of the HUD or have the existing three in the center of the stem with a lens showing to the front and the back. On the vision it seems that it would be as easy as splitting the optic cable to point in both directions.

In any case, periodically checking on one's buddy seems like a good practice and making it easier to do without breaking the flow of the dive and from a distance would be awesome. And in the case of an emergency, being able to quickly verify what the electronics are reading may help speed up a viable rescue response.

Does anyone else think that would be helpful?
george