8 Miracles to Resurrect Smart Watches
Well, let’s talk about smart wearware. Again. Today we cook smart watches. Nom we are not going to tell you not to buy one. But why not to think aloud about features that could make devices of the kind to be really useful and desirable (as now they are expensive piece of info and step recorder) not only as something trendie brandie for show up, but because of better life experience. Ok, we own you 8 ideas to start from. And then you can move ahead on your own. Let’s consider the idea for smart watches to work for weeks to be ground zero.
1. Contactless payments
It is the most evident thing to use with a watch rather than with a smartphone. And contactless payments are being implemented here and there by Apple in the United States and financial companies elsewhere (for instance, Alpha Bank wit their Alpha Watch). You don’t need to take your watches out of your pocket, they can be used at any moment. To implement the feature only NFC is required, well, we will need to wait until software developers will have done their job and issue NFC watch payment applications. Android Wear and WathcOS are awaiting. Even if your devices will switch off because of battery it will not be a problem as you will still have your cord with you.
2. Smart Lock Key for home, car, office, etc.
This idea also requires NFC and is not too far from realization. Actually, we all have to start using smart locks, cars, office, etc. Then we have to use a better battery for our smart watches to make sure we will not stay before our door without power supply after a long working day. Today we can say there are smart locks and software available for Apple Watch. Let’s hope Androiders will enter the celebration soon.
3. Full featured analyzer of health state with sensors working correctly and tracing bio-chemical changes
In fact, all features of wearable electronics are those available from smartphones. But fitness wristbend manufacturers promise to develop advanced devices with sensors other than step counter, pulse counter and UV. For instance, to add sensors that can analyze sweat and calculate real job done, measure temperature (BTW, a smartphone from Samsung could measure temperature two years ago) of your body and sweat composition (e.g. lack of water, etc.). Many of the manufacturers tried hard to implement those features but failed. Probably not an easy challenge. Nevertheless, we have a chance those features will be implemented and in normal level of functionality and accuracy. I’ll be the next in the queue to buy.
4. Smart home remote control
We need a real remote control. Not one for sending dummy notifications from your smartphone like what we have today. We need information from home machines with smart sensors so your washer to inform it is ready to unload, your conditioner to say it needs some rest, and your water filter to drop a message it need replacement. As smart watches used to receive bio data from its owner we need it to work with the data together with data received from your smart home. Say, it would be great if my smartwatch starts washer or breadmaker when I sleep deep, and my coffee machine when I just wake up, and my conditioner when I feel hot. Of course to realize this dream your home needs a whole bunch of smart electronics here and there at your home. It is still a fantasy, alas.
5. Electronic Identity
I have no idea how much efforts developers should do to provide all possible levels of security for documents to bring to a small wristbend device. But I’m sure it is one of the most important trend technologies are heading towards. An option to hold a copy of an ID card in a smart watch is more than logic and of demand. First of all, smart watches are smart enough to store and hold new data about owners. Second, they are harder to loose than smartphones. Third, it is just handy so you do not need to think about your ID card or driver’s license when you need them, for example, in your bank.. Fourth, it is much easier to deactivate a smart watch faster than make your lost documents voided.
By the way, recently we thought about various interesting ideas to use OLDE display and saw a nice concept from Samsung, they offered to implement electronic ID with OLED screen.
6. Full supports for smartphone applications
I wish to go jogging with my watch but without my phone. But I cannot as my great application I used to use is useless in this case. I don’t believe guys at Adidas will develop an edition of miCoach for smart watches. They should do it at the same time the competitor did. Adidas offers a whole range of smart wearable electronics but poses they do not see wristbends and smart watches. If you use a smart watch you no doubt have your own miCoach they actual developers have not yet ported to a wearable device.
7. Personal gadget protection
Smart watches could work nicely as a key to your laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc. and replace all those passwords and authorization to get access to. Smartphones and tablets have now fingerprint protection while Windows based devices don’t. But in the brave new world, or in the corporate part of it, smart cards and multilevel authentification for remote access are widely used for corporate networks. Well, it would be really nice to use smart watches for the purpose.
8. Personal electronics management
Smart watches are good to control, say, quadcopters, home TVs, media centers, alarm systems, and so on. Every time you need to do some thing with your home electronics you have to look for a proper remote control, while your smart watch can replace them all. And why to fly a drone with a smartphone when you can do it with much more handy smart watch? So I would recommend all drone manufacturers to thin about “friendship” with Apple Watch and Apple Wear (well, androiders, do not blame me).
