Finally, a working prototype of a smart clock with a projector (video)
Remember all these designs of bracelets and "smart" watches that turn your hand into a touchscreen display? Usually it's a beautiful concept video, but the engineers at Carnegie Mellon University are not used to retreat before the difficulties - the Future Interfaces Group introduced a prototype of the LumiWatch projection gadget.
What kind of beast?
This is a full-fledged "smart" clock with a laser projector of 15 lumens. The area of the display area on the forearm is about 40 cm2, and since the hand is not the most flat surface, there is a distortion correction system. The depth sensors allow you to record the touch of a finger. The team even added the slide-to-unlock feature to prevent accidental clicks in situations where the user simply decided to check the time.
Inside the case with dimensions of 50x41x17 mm hides a small computer with a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and an operating system Android 5.1 Lollipop on board. The battery lasts for an hour of projector operation, this is about a day of not very active use. Brightness is enough to view the image on the street.
What's next?
According to the authors of the project, they cooperate with the Chinese manufacturer ASU Tech. This company promised to release a projection clock back in 2016, but the development was very protracted. Only recently the final version of the device appeared on crowdfanding in China, it differs in many respects from the prototype above:
ASU Watch received a usual 1.54-inch display and a projector that creates a projection on the palm of your hand (diagonal of 2.3 inches, resolution 480x854 pixels). The thickness of the device is impressive 17.8 mm. This thing is not for everyone, especially if you take into account the standard price of $ 585. About the battery life is not known - the specified 35 days in standby mode with the screen off, do not say absolutely nothing.
The delivery of orders is planned to begin in late May, if within the campaign will be collected at least $ 15 000 (already there is a third of the amount). On crowdfanding, prices start at $ 480.
Sources: Robert Xiao , Digital Trends , JD