Research into electronic watches has been really fun. If you want to blow your mind try http://www.tokyoflash.com. Zooming around the Web I found a $6 watch with an unusual display.
Press the button and the watch displays the time in three bands of tiny round dots.
I have an issue with this design. Sometimes I need to know the time and my hands are not free to press the button. For example, when I am riding an electric scooter at high speed and I am late to catch the train to work.
Electric watches conserve their battery power by turning themselves off when they think they are not in use. I initially chose an ePaper display for Votsh partially because it requires no energy between updates. There needs to be a way to be power efficient and present to the wearer.
The solution is a simple algorithm for when the watch uses or updates the display. I learned this from Ethernet networking protocols. Here is how it works:
1) Set a timer interval value of 1 second.
2) Count down the timer interval value time, then update the display.
3) If the user has not triggered any action during the interval, then double the time interval value and go back to step 2
4) Wake-up and resume normal operation
The user’s “trigger” can be anything: pressing a button on the watch, touching/gesturing on the watch face, shaking the watch, the watch receives a message over a network, etc.
What do you think? Click comments and let me know.
-Frank Cohen
