Samsung Smartwatch Concept Design Turns Your Hand Into A Display Screen
Smartwatch manufacturers have tried a few ways to overcome the restrictions of a tiny wrist-worn screen, such as gestures, pressure sensitivity or voice commands. Samsung considers there might be a better approach, though: moving the display away from the watch. It's applying for a patent on an idea that would project a wearable's interface on to all from user's hand to the wall.
It'd use sensors to sense those outside-of-the-wrist interactions, and it could even detect the geometry of our hand to familiarize the interface to that area. the user might see extra buttons on their fingers if their palm is open.
The patent application also explores the potential for long fingers to work as additional buttons.
However Samsung's patent application may appear more than a little crazy, it offers a novel solution to the screen real estate problem encountered by wearables. By design, smartwatches need to have relatively small displays, but this means using them as a touchscreen can easily obscure the entire screen. Apple has tried to counter this with the Apple Watch's digital crown which permits users to scroll without covering the screen. Samsung has a similar solution in the Gear S2's rotating bezel, where spinning the watch's frame acts as a primary navigation mechanism.
Samsung patented a smartwatch indication that projects a larger user interface (UI) on the user’s hand for a good management of the device. The wearable contains an image projector with UI screen, processor, and a camera.
The South Korean company filed the appeal to the Trademark Office and U.S. Patent, in which describes a particular device not seen before or even impossible to build in a near future according to some tech experts.
“The wearable device includes an image projector configured to project a virtual user interface screen, a camera configured to capture an image, and a processor configured to detect a target area from the image captured by the camera,” the petition to the PTO stated.
The usage scenarios range from basic interfaces, for messaging and dialing, to showing related data related to navigational inquiries. The projected area can also have an a keyboard, number pad, or show extended menu functions for one of the applications being used. Users can also draw or write, in the interface screen projected on the back of the hand or anywhere else.