What the CUFF? Nokia shows how a smartwatch really OUGHT to work Boffins working for Nokia have knocked together a prototype smartwatch with six screens, and patented the ways in which one might use it should such a thing ever become technically practical. The Nokia Facet isn't a product, it isn't even a prototype, but the functional model lets Nokia engineers work out how one might …
Getting patents doesn't require considering 'what hardware will be available', just that you lock up the ideas before anyone can use them on their sexier hardware. And I've seen some really sexy wristband designs, with and without flexible screens in the last year. Those sexy designs just weren't shown doing more than responding to taps.
This has to be one of the least attractive things I've seen for a long time though ;)
I see great potential in this system, once the engineers have let go of it and the designers can mould it into something that people would like to wear. It really needs to be seen as jewelry with function rather than functionality strapped to the wrist. Curved screens and silver or gold casements, with lots of lovely rounded edges would transform this into something desireable. The multiscreen idea is also neat as it allows the user to select what to display without having to tap through menus. So a watch screen on one facet, with a twitter feed on a another facet and your email or calendar on another. Having all 6 facets as screens may not be necessary but at least three would be good; four if that expanding option proves useful. The other facets could be used for battery space and maybe a NFC transponder.
Yeah, I was wondering why they needed six screens too, even as a 'test rig'. It's good to see people are testing some future concepts though.
Apple are sitting on a patent that can allow a 'smartwatch' to look more like jewellery; the micro-perforated aluminium (like that used for the power LED on their wireless keyboards) combined with a capacitive sensor to detect deflections in the aluminium surface when touched. Obviously the patent made no mention of smartwatches, but it would allow an 'invisible' (when not in use) touch screen.
In memory of Iain M. Banks: from The Player of Games, the bracelet modelled on an Orbital habitat.
"once the engineers have let go of it and the designers can mould it into something that people would like to wear"
Hm.
My immediate reaction was that engineers do stuff and then designers get out their box of coloured pencils, use them a bit, then try to take the credit for being "creative("s")".
But I recognise that simplifications are just that. Reality is more complex.
The bracelet features six screens, ...
A true "how a smartwatch ought to work" would monitor your brainwaves and detect when you wanted to know the time, then stimulate the correct neurons with the required information.
Anything less is barely an improvement on a 500 year-old fob watch.
>Anything less is barely an improvement on a 500 year-old fob watch.
It would be churlish of me to suggest that John Harrison made a bit of an improvement when your comment brought this to my attention:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhYoh3_JqnE
The 'Pomander' timepiece from 1505.
> If Apple can patent ...
Maybe I should submit a patent application for A method of ascertaining the current time using audio tokens and social interaction
I.E. ask someone.
(Though I'm unclear how I'd go about enforcing the patent and collecting royalties. More thought needed.)
Of course, it's possible that Apple isn't planning on making a smart watch at all. They could just be spreading rumours so that competitors rush to spend their R&D budgets on wrist-wear, whilst Apple do something entirely different. I doubt that anything would please Apple more than to have competitors with warehouses full of unsold watches, whilst they smugly clean up with the iPoo smart-loo (or somthing).
On the other hand it might be that Apple feel forced into producing something in this line because otherwise they risk an unexpected hit product drawing people away from their 'ecosystem'.
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Nokia's demo there looks like something that would suit the Windows Phone tile setup (or Android widgets) quite well. Still think the problem with all of these products is battery life and that isn't going to change very much in the near future. Even the Pebble needs weekly charging which is not brilliant.
>Of course, it's possible that Apple isn't planning on making a smart watch at all.
If Apple have decided that it isn't worth their while developing a 'smartwatch', they still would have done 'due process' to reach that conclusion. That 'due process' would be in part be research into the 'smartwatch' concept.
Take that little iPod Nano, for example: There would have been a considered reason, perhaps commercial or technical, why they didn't include Bluetooth and thus allow it to work with iPhones.
Nokia had such great potential. (N900 not withstanding)
But MS have it now :-
So each screen will be a Windows 8 tab (tile, hub, square - whatever they are called nowadays)
It will have a battery life of 20 minutes.
It will need AV
...and the fact it will record and download everything to the NSA, and probably only work if plugged into your phone like Samsung.
With required patches every day.
Still someone in Nokia had brains and lots of skill / talent. They will move to some startup and it will get off the ground as a kickstarter, or get used somewhere by someone with cash who see a good idea. Future looks hopeful.
It appears to be from Nokia Research Centre in California.
https://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/hci-student-jobs/2012q1/000324.html
Under the agreement between MS and Nokia it might be considered a mobile device and have gone to MS or as it's not an Asha or a Lumia device it might have stayed with Nokia. Hopefully the second.
Am I the only one who saw this and though for a second it was April fools day? IMHO it seems rubbish.
Poor UX, awkward and rather pointless. Why would anyone want this?
Surely a curved, flexible screen (which is already technically possible) which bends around your wrist by 180 degrees would be far better. It would have an unbroken screen, and allow you to see information in better detail. If it was AMOLED it would use much battery just for showing small segments either.
As for "patented the ways in which one might use it should such a thing ever become technically practical". Does anyone not see anything amiss with that statement?
It also may be that while it appears "Apple is in no rush", they might have a mostly finished product but they're waiting on technology advancements to make it possible. Sort of like how they had a finished concept for the iPad back in 2002, before they even started working on the iPhone, but the tech available to them then wouldn't have made it possible to build.
Maybe they're waiting on something that will help battery life. Maybe they want to make it from Liquid Metal but still haven't work out the kinks on mass production with it yet. Maybe they have a form factor decided on but can't fit all the bits they want to include in that amount of space with today's tech.
The watches coming out now all seem to have various compromises, as most companies think it is more important to be early to market. Apple is willing to be late to the market if they think their product is the one people really want. We'll see if that's true (assuming they ever do release a watch)
"This is exactly why Apple are in no rush. They will sit and wait to see what people are doing and then take all the best bits and blend them into a slick, seamless package which everyone will fawn over."
... which a vocal minority will fawn over, and others will chuckle over.
(cf. other iThings).
I was a bit sceptical on seeing this at first, but at the very end, it showed all the screens as separate items, which could then be "installed" into a bracelet "holder".
What struck me was that you could buy maybe one screen to begin with and then add others, depending on your needs and circumstances. Indeed, said screens could also be used in your car, at home/work or anywhere...and then clipped onto the bracelet, should you want to.
So, this could prove to be quite a winner, as long as it's not too expensive.....lest the "great unwashed" might find good reason to relieve you of various assorted (expensive) screens.....
"moron who decide windoze phone was the way to go."
That worked out quite well for them versus a dying platform they already had and versus Android that no one but Samsung makes any money off.
They have ended up back in profit next quarter, with the option to sell to Microsoft, and top of the pile of the fastest growing, most efficient and most secure mobile OS in Windows Phone...
coupled with this technology
http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/124229-lg-begins-mass-production-of-flexible-plastic-e-ink-displays
having multi-modules working together is a great idea.
One module could be either a sports/fitness sensor, or a medical sensor (bp, heart, diabetes sugar levels etc) the next module is then the summary display.
move it close to a 7" 'slab to work on the data etc.
Lego for data!
I was thinking that. It would have to be thin*, and maybe translucent when it's not on, and god knows where you'd put the battery. But it's future tech we're talking about, who cares where the battery goes!
* I have in my head an image from sci-fi or a comic I saw at some point, but can't remember where it came from.. Inspector gadget maybe? Didn't penny have something like that on her wrist? Google doesn't show it, so who knows.
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