Smart watches: what do they mean for us?

[foodle]

Wanna hit it big. Develop a breakthrough battery technology. This area lags so far behind the advancement of the devices they have been powering for 20 years it's staggering when you think about it.

There are plenty of people in industry and academia working on improving battery technology, particularly for cars and mobile electronics. But there isn't an equivalent kind of scaling for battery technology as Moore's Law for electronics. Another issue is that today's batteries have an energy storage capacity that is so high that it might not be a good idea to increase it much more. As measured in J/kg, a good Li-ion/polymer battery already has about 1/10 the energy storage capacity as TNT. This is why there are new TSA limits to the number of extra computer batteries you can carry on planes. This is also why there is a news story every few weeks of a phone or laptop battery blowing up or catching fire. There's a lot of energy stored in those batteries, and if it gets released quickly things go boom or burn. So unless you want to go walking around with a little square of high-explosive in your pocket, we need to work more on low power electronics (wherein thankfully Moore's Law will help, as long as it holds and we don't hit fundamental process scaling limits). That's not to say that there's not a lot of research and improvement to be made in battery technology, but keeping increasing the energy storage capacity without limit may not be the most prudent thing to do.

[SCM64]

^ good info. How ever they do it, it needs to be done.

[foodle]

How ever they do it, it needs to be done.

One of the most promising technologies in this space is an old idea that people on this board use everyday. It has the fancy new name "energy harvesting" but it's the same basic idea as used in an automatic watch movement. The spring in the movement when fully wound can only run the watch for a few days, but because the spring is continually being wound by the movement of the wearer's arm, the watch can basically run indefinitely as long as it's being worn. By itself, the movement uses a lot of power, but with a continually self-replenishing power supply, it can run for a long time.

There are a lot of mobile electronics makers looking at similar techniques of recharging batteries based on user movement, shoe heel compression, ground vibration, solar, etc. Of course this has been used in watches for a long time in traditional automatic movements, Seiko's kinetic movements, etc.

Seiko kinetic movement

[marchone]

I love this stuff. Don't know a freaking thing about it but still.

[BBK357]

Yeah it's darn near a G but not war resistant

[marchone]

What? The first ones will probably have an operating temperature range of 13 degrees.

[koda240]

I think a a lot of the smart watches have potential and it will only get better. No reason to not have one in rotation if it's cool I guess. My only concern is the overly connected part. I don't want yet another device to keep me tied up with anything but what's in front of me at that moment.


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[marchone]

How about yet another device to track your whereabouts?

[fastward]

How about yet another device to track your whereabouts?

A tin foil hat helps block those signals.

[fastward]

How about yet another device to track your whereabouts?

A tin foil hat helps block those signals.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone that wears a tin foil hat to block those government brain scanning signals.

[marchone]

Google isn't the NSA. It's all about sales.

[tattoo chef]

I have no desire to have one. I'm actually contemplating going back to a standard phone that just makes phone calls. I'm usually not far from a computer or a tablet if I need Internet access anyway.

$10 says the first one purchased by someone on here ends up on an Isofrane.

Unless you want one of those phones with huge buttons, sold to the elderly, you're going to have to be flexible. Verizon doesn't sell a single phone without special texting capabilities and a camera.

I don't mind text and a camera, I just have no need for a smart phone that requires data plans, otherwise I'll keep doing what I am doing now, which is continually posting from my phone. I'd take another one of these.

Had that same phone I guess about 6 years ago now?
Girlfriend at the time and I both got one, I though it was cool as hell at the time lol.



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[tattoo chef]

And on subject of smart watches,,,never for me.
I can't even get myself to wear a gshock any more.
So no way am I wearing some tech thing on my wrist.


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[fastward]

Get a Jitterbug, only $14.99 /mo for service, big buttons and a camera.

[Torrid]

I loved the LG Shine. Mirrored screen and brushed aluminum case.

[foodle]

How about yet another device to track your whereabouts?

A smart watch on its own is not particularly smart. It's really just a portal into your phone. So there's no additional issue with tracking. Maybe some minor stuff with Bluetooth IDs, but you can already be tracked via your cell phone heartbeat just fine.

[H3rrington]

Unless you want one of those phones with huge buttons, sold to the elderly, you're going to have to be flexible. Verizon doesn't sell a single phone without special texting capabilities and a camera.

Camera can be an issue in some jobs. I knew a guy who worked in a government lab who had to have his phone camera drilled out if he wanted to take his phone to work.

Yep. Any job that requires security clearance doesn't allow a camera phone (at least they didn't a few years ago).

I can have my phone. Just have to put it up before I go anywhere at work

[AtomicTom]

Probably will just stick to regular watches, but I think these could actually get
some non watch people into watches which would be great foodle.

[starx]

I like my gshock for banging around and I can also see this smartwatch thing becoming quite popular. Not interrested in getting one myself though... I have a smartphone for work, but I'd be perfectly happy with a cheap ass cell phone that can only be used for calling and text messaging. But I do love my MP3 player that also plays these damn fine FLAC files!