Smartwatch From The Future Turns Your Arm Into A Usable “Touchscreen”
The rise of smartwatches gave a new life to the technology that has helped humans keep track of time. Otherwise, many people were almost convinced that a wristwatch wasn’t required anymore.
The researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with ASU Tech, have worked out a new prototype watch that takes the coolness to another level. Their Android-powered creation called LumiWatch can project things on the arms of the wearer. It lets them interact through an on-body interface that spreads across a 40 sq cm surface area. That’s roughly five times more than a typical smartwatch display.
While there have been efforts of projection-based wearables in the past, LumiWatch is the first fully-functional self-contained projector smartwatch that features a usable on-body interface.
LumiWatch uses red, green, and blue laser lights to project the UI onto the wearer’s hand. It can last for almost an hour with continuous projection and 2D finger tracking. The researchers estimate that the 740mAh battery can survive for nearly a day with normal usage.
It’s powered by Android 5.1 running on a 1.2Ghz Qualcomm chip with 768MB RAM and 4GB flash memory, Bluetooth, WiFi. Regarding size, LumiWatch isn’t something that would go unnoticed, especially, when it measures 2-inch x 1.6-inch x 0.66-inch.
The estimated cost of the prototype is around $600. But that might change if it ever releases as a commercial product. The details of the smartwatch are published in a research paper titled, “LumiWatch: On-Arm Projected Graphics and Touch Input.”
Also Read: Apple Working On 16K Wireless VR/AR Headset; Plans To Release By 2020
