The Best Smart Watch ever made

MOTO360 [Image from Mashable]

Watch becomes more than an accessory

Time keeping devices are nothing short of a modern marvel. Clocks were the first of devices to be acknowledged by a wide audience and recieve almost universal adoption. These devices were the genesis for all the revolutionary computing devices that we have today. By closing the physical distance and by radiating more personality, Watches embraced even more success. This is where the Watch becomes more than an accessory.  By the end of this year we might probably witness a revival of the lost art of watch making. The more interesting aspect is that, this might as well trigger rapid advancements in the wearable market. Recent venturing of tech giants into this arena will and must herald future technical advances in wearable technology as well as personal healthcare.

PC HAS BEEN THE PRIMARY SOURCE FOR MAJORITY OF THE DIGITAL CONTENT

The PC has been the primary source for majority of the digital content. The Smart Phone has slowly but surely stepped up as an important entity of Data creation. Googles continued disconnection with PC world is due to the fact that Chrome OS hasn’t taken off anywhere nor does it play nice with any other platforms. Android never promised an enhanced experience for sharing content across Mobile devices and PCs. Instead, Googles persistence over faux unified experience with a hoard of “seamless” cloud apps has seen success at least to an extent. Google cloud apps are an affirmative addition to Android but never bridged what Ubuntu for Android tried to provide and possibly the OS X Yosemite-iOS ‘Continuity’ will.

SMART WATCH NEEDS AN INDEPENDENT IDENTITY

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Look at where the Phone, meant to be used as a remote PC, ended up. The Smartwatch has to stop being a remote view of a remote view of a remot… You get the point. There is no need to tie down these watches to the Smart Phone. The Smart Watch needs an Independent Identity. It must serve the purpose it was built for. Keeping Time must be the fundamental idea around which the other features must converge. 

YET ANOTHER VERSION OF ANDROID WAS NOT THE ANSWER WE NEEDED

It doesn’t seem bizarre when all Tech companies working on same ideas (may be different implementations) end up producing same similar products. It is not difficult to imagine someone rushing into Google’s office to announce “Apple is making an iWatch!!!” or the inverse at Apple’s office. There is a unanimous effort from the companies to push into Smart Watch business at full steam. Google’s former protégé Motorola and Android accomplice LG have dived first to bring out Android Wear Watches. Amongst them, Motorola’s MOTO360 is more beautiful and also seems to be the one worth buying. But I fear yet another version of android was not the answer we needed. There are as well alternate experiments happening in the market referring to likes of Samsung’s Tizen Watches, Sony Smartwatches, People-funded success story Pebble and then Apple’s wearable (iWatch?). Pebble has been excessively promoted in Social Media by Authors who are backing the Project or raising opinions since they own one or they are just simply assuming many are rooting to own one. The Pebble is a good product but not ‘the’ best product. It is arduously concentrated on being a remote notification device while leaving a huge gap in terms of appeal as a Watch. This is where Apple will come into its own. It appears as though it would provide what the current vendors will fail to provide – A Watch.  It will be down on hardware specifications compared to existing market baseline but there is no doubt it will sell. Make no mistake I am a pro Android user but none of the devices from any manufacturer satiate my demands, and that is what I’m raving about in this article.

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Introducing  quantum Smart Watch concept

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Before everybody goes bonkers over Apple’s new training kit and then others start off a bandwagon of watches, I want to show off what is possible. I want to set the tone for devices ahead, so I give you - “quantum”.

Key elements for the design

• WATCH = TIME
• ‘Clean and Elegant’
• ‘Simple and Easy’
• ‘Precise and Timeless Presence'

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Guidelines for building the Best Smart Watch

• Visibility The perception of depth is the key to replace a practical device that visually interfaces a human body. Think 3D displays and/or Virtual/Augmented displays, Google Glass for instance.

• Interoperability Smart Watch needs an Independent Identity. Think Sync-free ecosystem, Data connectivity only once a while or completely absent, Create content within device.

• Mobility Anything with a wire is not a Wearable rather wire-enabled. Think solar charging, Wireless power, and Body heat conversion.

• Capability There no need for a  >400Mhz  processor equipped device to be on your arm. Think OS-less device, purpose-built device and dedicated functions.

• Durability The Materials must be adaptable to activities. Think Hard Metals bodies, Scratch resistant Glass, Durable straps, Water/Dust resistance.

• Usability Create Time driven events rather than Content/Data driven events. Sync only when required.

• Credibility Everybody, Please stop ‘Dick Tracy’ing around!!! Think of commendable applications such as NFC based Medical Information Card, Emergency contact or Emergency information, Buzz alerts for taking pills/keep drowsiness away while driving, Magnetic Compass for navigation, Gesture recognition , Non-invasive health monitoring.

Smart Watch Features Wish list

- AMOLED 3D display with Sapphire

- High Density Small Volume Battery

- Transparent Infrared Solar cells

- POWER over WIFI (new standard) Wireless Charging option

- WiFi Direct support

- Water resistance and Dust resistance

- NFC

- Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Digital Compass and Barometer

- Gesture Control for higher devices

Healthcare Features Wish list

 - Geiger counter for Radiation sensing

 - Pedometer

 - In-contact Body temperature sensor and monitoring

 - Infrared Heart rate sensor and monitoring

 - Ultrasonic Blood pressure monitoring

 - Non-invasive Blood sugar monitoring

 - NFC assisted Global Medicare card with Emergency Distress Signals

Comparison Chart of Devices

	HTC Wildfire	Sony Liveview	Motorola MOTOACTV	LG G Watch
Launch	May 2010	Dec 2010	Dec 2011	July 2014
Processor Family	Qualcomm Snapdragon S1	STMicroelectronics 32 bit ARM MCU	TI OMAP 3	Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
Model	MSM7225	ST 32F103C6	OMAP3630-600	MSM 8226
CPU	ARM11	ARM Cortex-M3	ARM Cortex-A8	ARM Cortex-A7
Frequency	528 MHz	72 MHz	600 MHz	787 MHz
GPU	-	-	PowerVR SGX530	Adreno 305
Price	Rs 24000	Rs 9600	Rs 14950	Rs 15300

Unanswered Questions from the Article

Will Android Wear take off?

Will When will phasing out of Chrome OS happen as Android TV/ Wear/Auto/@Home take flight?

Will existing companies involved in making specialty commodity play ball or perish?

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Fine Print

The information mentioned here are purely the perceptions of the Author and are not from any data analysis study or information data source. They are only opinions expressed by the Author. Android, Apple, Braun, HTC, Google, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, Qualcomm, Sony and Obaku are registered trademarks of respective entities. Names are used only for Illustration. DsynFLO or the Author do not have any affiliations with these entities or vice versa.