No, we don't. Here's why...
News about patents filed by tech companies always tends to astonish and excite industry enthusiasts. This one comes from the house of Samsung. Apparently, Samsung has filed a patent for a smartwatch which can project its display onto a person’s hand, or any other pre-defined space. Users will also be able to directly interact with the projection, just like they would with their smartwatch screen. Sounds like something straight out of a spy movie doesn’t it? While the watch makes for a good contender for product placement in James Bond’s next soirée, or Justin Timberlake’s 'In Time' part deux, we may actually not have any use for it in real life.
Firstly, a wrist wearable with a projector is nothing new. RITOT, an Indiegogo startup, created and successfully funded a smart band (which they call a smartwatch), which claims to be the ‘First Projection Watch’ in the world. All they did was fit a pico projector inside a watch band, which digitally displayed time, call and other notifications such as Facebook messages and Tweets, onto a person’s wrist. Now, there might be 2 very valid reasons why you have never heard of RITOT. Maybe you’ve been living under a rock all along and don’t know what’s been happening with projection displays, or you (like me), feel this is yet another gimmick, exerted by a known tech company, to make you feel like smartwatches finally have some real technological solutions to offer, and that as a gadget enthusiast, it falls upon you to pay a king’s ransom for a watch with a projector.
RITOT smartwatch
By now, most of you must have Googled RITOT, or at least clicked on the hyperlink to its Indiegogo page, which would reveal that all the smartwatch could do was project an interface onto person’s hand. However, unlike Samsung’s patent, users cannot interact with those projections. Yes, according to the Korean tech giant’s patent filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the upcoming smartwatch will not only have the ability to project the watch’s UI on a hand or any other surface, but will also give users the ability to interact with the virtual UI screen. Now, if you think this idea is novel and out of this world, let me refresh your memory and take you back just a few months, to MWC 2016.
This is where Sony showed off their Xperia projector concept, which uses a sensor and a projector to convert any tabletop or wall into a touchscreen display for the user to interact with.
Sony Xperia Projector Concept
Even if Samsung couldn’t care less about ingenuity when it comes to this projection smartwatch, there are many other fundamental issues with a smartwatch that houses a projector, that in turn becomes a touchscreen display (Wow! That was a mouth full).
Smartphones with projectors never really took off. Why would a smartwatch be any different?
We have already established that Interactive virtual projections have been out there for a while now. Samsung itself has tried a version of it with their Galaxy BEAM series, 2 smartphones that didn’t manage to excite the market and were lost in oblivion. Last year, Lenovo also showcased a smartphone called the ‘Smart Cast’, at the Lenovo Tech World conference. The phone had an inbuilt laser projector, with the ability to project a virtual keyboard on a flat surface, allowing users to interact with the projected display, just like they would with their smartphones. Unfortunately, we have not heard anything more on the Smart Cast from Lenovo since then. Yes, you do have a bunch of smartphones in the market that house a projector, but I bet you can’t name 5 such smartphones if I were to ask you right now. Why? Because it just doesn't matter! Apart from watching a crappy resolution movie projected on a wall, do you really want to project your games, personal documents and images on a wall or a desk?
Lenovo Smart Cast
The whole point of smartphones and wearable devices was to use them as “personal” gadgets. If you really think about it, how many times in a day will you sit down and project something on a wall. Even if you are one that needs to present 50 PPTs in a day, would you rather rely on a dependable VGA or HDMI cable, or would you risk looking like a fool, trying to mount his/her smartwatch in the perfect position, to get a washed out display on a wall?
If the likes of Samsung think that smartwatches are restrictive because of their display size, they are right, but, displays that can be projected will not change that for sure. The very nature of a smartwatch is to be small, private and to be able to share data with a smartphone. While a no-holds-barred approach is definitely needed to inculcate actual functionality into a smartwatch, a virtual display is not the answer for sure.
Did you know: In a smartwatch usage study conducted by the University of Stockholm’s Mobile Life Centre, It was concluded that Apple Watch users used the smartwatch to take calls only 8 times in a month and only twice to read emails.
Taking calls on a smartwatch with a speakerphone has similar privacy restrictions as projecting one’s confidential documents or pictures on a hand or a wall. I for one, would not want people around me staring at my wrist and reading a colourful Facebook comment posted by a relentless friend. Would you?
Even if you say yes, will you be able to afford a smartwatch with a projector? My guess is No. According to a recent study conducted by research engine Factbrowser, the average smartwatch price will remain somewhere around $200 till 2020. But, this will not be your average smartwatch right? If Samsung ever makes this watch, and in doing so, creates an army of brands trying to replicate the feature in their own versions, we will see the creation of fake demand, where users get excited about a particular feature, without having any real use for it. Exactly what happened to 3D Touch. How many of you iPhone 6S users can swear by 3D Touch? How many of you find yourself mindlessly tapping and pressing your iPhone’s display, trying your best to show-off its 3D Touch capabilities to your friends, and failing miserably in the process? My guess is many of you do it and would rather not admit it.
So dear friends and fellow tech patrons, please don’t lose your marbles over a Samsung/Apple/Xiaomi/LG/Lenovo smartwatch with an interactive virtual display. If industry trends (and common sense) is to be believed, you really won’t need it.
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Adamya Sharma
Managing editor, Digit.in - News Junkie, Movie Buff, Tech Whizz! View Full Profile
