个人觉得现在的Smartwatch concept就不是一个可以带动市场激情的理念,本来以为
Apple会按兵不动不去趟这潭死水,seems that i am wrong。曾经发过一篇blog说过我
的想法,当时还不知道有mitbbs这东西,转发自己,求认同
At current stage of cellphone war, hardware upgrades hardly excites us
anymore, yet we are expecting (fervently) a technology leap as profound as
first iPhone. I believe such leap will be taking physical phones out of our
hands, and replace it with visual reality. Making a mini version of the
phone and strap it on the wrist fails to do either. Smart watch is not going
to replace anything, is it going to replace conventional watch? Cellphones
have already done that; can it replace smartphone? Not now, tiny screen
eliminates practicality of typing, and the alternative – voice input – is
not fully ready. I live in Southern California, I have seen enough ladies
and lads with various accents eventually grow tired of making fun of (or
being made fun of) Siri/Google Voice Search. Another way of looking at it,
smart watches are making a hard stride against trend trying to crawl into
people’s life. For example, every morning before I leave for work, I recite
to myself “key, keycard, wallet, phone”. Forgetting any one of them will
prevent me going somewhere, whether it is my car, my work, my lunch, or my
connection. I believe technology should reduce number of things I have to
carry with me, instead of increasing it. For argument’s sake, even if I do
add smart watch to my list, forgetting it on any particular morning would
not make me slap one hand over my forehead and go “&*#$!”. All in all,
smart watches will attempt making to everyone’s must-have list and won’t
make it.
Believers of smart watches (wherever you are) may argue I am being too harsh
to current models which could be just midway to a greater and better place,
I respectfully disagree. Google glasses fit such description better than
smart watches do. If there is going to be a watch, this is what I see to be
a worthy but not final destination, with consideration of available and
achievable technology in about 2-4 years.
Imagine that you have your phone/tablet, glasses, and the “watch”. Every
morning you put on your glasses, which is more akin to a pair of regular
glasses or sunglasses, it will show you nothing, until you look down at your
wrist where the “watch” is. With a push of a button on the watch, your
glass shoots out some inferred (or via other means) to find the position of
the watch, and display a home screen at the position of the back of your
hand. If you do see something interesting, say title of an email that you
want to read, you turn over your hand, and full phone screen will be
displayed at the palm of your hand. When you are done, close your palm or
simply drop your hand out of sight, phone screen goes away. You don’t have
to say any command words and app screen will not occupy your entire vision
or distract you. This is taking the physical phone out of your hands,
freeing them yet giving them more power. You see what you want to see, at
the location where you want to see it, using the most intuitive instruments
– your hand, not your speech. I see more potential/possibility than just
freeing your hand, when you have your personal spatial dimension in virtual
reality, there won’t be any app competing estate on a 5 inch or smaller
screen anymore. Each app can have its own screen with a coordinate relative
to where the watch is. All you have to do is literally “browsing” them
like books on the shelf, and shove them away at will. I feel powerful
already just thinking about it!
And having a watch can make other real life functionality better or easier
to implement. The watch can serve as an input/output device. Say, you push
the button on the watch and your glasses take a picture of what you see, way
better than taking a picture by holding up your hand, trying to aim the
other side your wrist at the object, and looking at a tiny screen. When you
have your credit card in your phone, just swipe or beep your watch against
sensor to pay for your groceries. Beep to get into doors, drive your car,
shake hands with real people and get facebook/linkedin info right away; and
I read from another gentleman’s post that having your watch monitoring your
heart beat, blood pressure is not such a bad idea either. Summing them all
up, current smart watches are not bold enough, nothing is redefined – mini
smartphone or glorified digital watches. What I described up there, a
prototype can be built in a couple of years, only major challenge I can
foresee is how you can interact by “touching” effectively in this virtual
reality.
Thank you for reading, please comment to let me know what you think is the
best form of wearable devices and what they can do.