Tag: smartwatch

Researchers are hoping that their software will be able to provide concise information regarding complex situations.

While traffic apps have been available for smartphones for some time now, when it comes to providing that same feature through a smartwatch app, there are far greater challenges, if only because of the tiny size of the screen.

The goal is to be able to provide useful assistance regardless the complexity of a traffic snarl.

Beyond the size of the screen, the reason that everything needs to be greatly simplified is that if people are going to be wearing a smartwatch while behind the wheel, so they cannot be using these wearable technology devices in a way that will cause a dangerous distraction. This means that the tech must be accessible, customizable, and readable without having to spend any real amount of time focusing on the screen or changing the settings. Finish researchers are now demonstrating a way for this to occur in a practical way for real life situations.

The smartwatch app is being tested by a team of researchers from the VTT Technical Research Centre.

These apps for wearable technology are meant to bring together social communication tools with speech recognition, into a simple looking display that will depict traffic information in an intelligent and non-distracting fashion.

The application is being tested in Helsinki, the capital of Finland through a “Park&Ride” app that has been designed for wearables. Within those tests, it was found that this method was even more effective than navigation over smartphones.

The information that is available through the wearable technology application provides drivers with quite a bit of information, such as whether a level rail crossing now has a train that is approaching. This will alert drivers nearby, or will allow the first driver to dictate a message so that other road users that are nearby will be warned that the train will be coming and that there will be a delay at the crossing.

The researchers concluded that this process will allow for messages to be safely spread in a non-distracting way through the smartwatch app more quickly than would be possible through a traditional mobile application.

These companies have banded together to be able to launch luxury wearables before the year is done.

The Baselworld Watch and Jewellery Show in Basel, Switzerland was hyped with announcements about wearable technology, such as the luxury smartwatch that is expected to result from a new partnership among Google, Intel, and the TAG Heuer Swiss watch-making company.

The goal of the companies is to create a device that is both practical to the wearer, as well as luxurious.

The CEO of TAG Heuer, Jean-Claude Biver, said that “Silicon Valley is Switzerland, Switzerland is Silicon Valley.” He pointed out that the device that the partners would be designing would be “both luxurious, and seamlessly connected to its wearer’s daily life.” He closed his announcement with a ceremonial slicing into an 80+ pound wheel of cheese from his own farm.

Biver’s statement showed that the smartwatch is the latest component of watch-making innovation.

He explained that by bringing together the technology of Silicon Valley and the watch-making of Switzerland, it is a “marriage” of innovation and credibility. He expressed that “Our collaboration provides a rich host of synergies, forming a win-win partnership, and the potential for our three companies is enormous.”

The companies have yet to name the wearable technology device that they intend to launch, but they do know that a chipset designed by Intel will be powering it, it will operate on Android Wear (the modified version of the standard mobile operating system from Google), and TAG Heuer will be designing the actual watch that will be worn by the owner. The availability and pricing of these wearables was also not revealed, but Biver did state that it could be launched anywhere between October and December 2015.

While TAG Heuer will be designing the watch, because of the smartwatch components of the device and as a result of the international method of assembly and manufacturing, the smartwatch that these companies will be producing will not have an actual “Swiss-made” timepiece certification. That said, it will be enhancing the early entry of Google and Intel into the very promising wearable technology marketplace.