"Blocks" Modular Smart Watch - A Wonderful Implementation

[mallenwho]

http://blog.phonebloks.com/post/100084027488/blocks-a-modular-smartwatch-by-hakeem-javaid

 

David Hakkens recently switched ploy rather than advocating for a modular smartphone, to advocating any tech company to any capacity to develop any modular consumer electronics device. This is the first that caught his (and my) eye.

 

Just like Project Ara this is the Desktop PC marketplace on a wearable. It will allow consumers to choose their price and what features of the device they want to spend their money on. it also allows for greater combustibility and upgrading potential - a major selling point for desktop PCs, yes?

 

- And of course sustainability and all. Wearables more so than any other catagory given they're still juvinile so a generation barely lasts a year, sometimes 6 months. A more stable market would be very beneficial in the long run.

 

Hakeem Javaid and his now 16 person team have been developing a modular smartwatch concept for Intel's 'Make It Wearable challenge'. Their design has been shortlisted to ten so has been granted $50,000 funding and access to Intel's latest mobile processors. 

 

The design is very simple and straightforward. The blocks interconnect through a standard audio/3.5mm jack where the band is the blocks. Many watches have metal bands of connected segments and this is an inspired way of interconnecting the technology and modules into the design without making things too tiny. In other words, It's project ara without the chassis but on your wrist!

 

Promotional video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1dB4LzIVSU

 

The problem with all of this is that we may end up with too many different standards. We may end up with a smartphone modular market, a tablet modular market, an SLR modular market, a watch modular market and a glasses modular market. While this marketplace is self growing and sustaining when the big players like Sennheiser and ASUS get into play, they won't develop for 15 small platforms. We need to make sure as an international community that only a handful of standards are developed to cover all bases. Perhaps project ara is applied to all consumer electronics (phones, tablets, SLRs, drones, fridges) and this (or something similar) becomes all wearables (that have a different agenda and design requirement). Two or three standards are ok, 15 is not.

[The_Strict_Nein]

That is an extremely clever implementation

[Nineshadow]

But why?

[Dmon]

Looks pretty neat.

[vern021]

This is around since July(based on this article)

 

http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/08/blocks-modular-smartwatch/

[ShadowCaptain]

Hmm very cool indeed

 

I will be keeping my eye on this

[qwertywarrior]

this is a very smart implementation but a smart watch today pretty much has all of the functionality it needs with a a minimal price hit

 

i can only see a few advantages for adding more blocks like more battery

but thats it

[mallenwho]

this is a very smart implementation but a smart watch today pretty much has all of the functionality it needs with a a minimal price hit

 

i can only see a few advantages for adding more blocks like more battery

but thats it

 

Some people might want a speaker on their watch for sharing media easier.

Some people might want a more powerful GPS/gyroscope.

Some people might use a smartwatch instead of a phone for reasons so would want more storage and battery. 

 

It's also about combustibility. Watches are fashion accessories so ability to change the outside plate to something else, and choose what goes on your wrist is probably important to some people.

[Ineko]

But why?

 

Why not?

[Tonylu1595]

Better than phone blocks.

[ShadowCaptain]

this is a very smart implementation but a smart watch today pretty much has all of the functionality it needs with a a minimal price hit

 

i can only see a few advantages for adding more blocks like more battery

but thats it

 

Yeah I mean the problem I see wth this is them selling you a basic £100 smart watch and then being like "oh gps? thats £50 more" "bluetooth? yep £50, wifi? £50, oh bigget battery? £50"

 

I mean, if they can already fit all of the hardware into the watch, why bother with the blocks, smartwatches already have wifi bluetooth 3g, GPS, browsers etc etc etc

 

The only thing I think I like is using the strap as a battery (not tiny links though)

 

I thing a company should make a smart watch where the band is a battery that lasts days and days - its space that could easily be used to provide power to teh watch and not just a useless strap

[Ineko]

Better than phone blocks.

 

How's it better than phone blocks? Phone blocks is still just PCBs being slapped together and is nowhere near being finished. How can you compare that with this watch?

Man so many stupid comments on this forum, I need to take a break before I have a brain aneurysm.

[LePawel]

How's it better than phone blocks? Phone blocks is still just PCBs being slapped together and is nowhere near being finished. How can you compare that with this watch?

Man so many stupid comments on this forum, I need to take a break before I have a brain aneurysm.

True, but I guess he believes it's better because it has more integrated design than phone blocks, which is literally square blocks.

[DigitalHermit]

Yeah I mean the problem I see wth this is them selling you a basic £100 smart watch and then being like "oh gps? thats £50 more" "bluetooth? yep £50, wifi? £50, oh bigget battery? £50"

 

I mean, if they can already fit all of the hardware into the watch, why bother with the blocks, smartwatches already have wifi bluetooth 3g, GPS, browsers etc etc etc

 

The only thing I think I like is using the strap as a battery (not tiny links though)

 

I thing a company should make a smart watch where the band is a battery that lasts days and days - its space that could easily be used to provide power to teh watch and not just a useless strap

 

This comes to mind...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2794055/the-battery-wraps-wrist-samsung-unveils-bendy-device-makes-wearable-tech-wearable.html

 

We might be seeing that first from Samsung...

[Octagoncow]

My concern is how well they will stay in place. It doesn't look like they would be very secure if you move around a lot.

[zanduh]

I was looking at the thumbnail and was confused why everyone was saying it looked like a good implementation

finally loaded up the vid on my phone because I'm at work

 

wow. I'll take 5 batteries please

 

E-ink display option. I wonder how that works with apps and stuff

[ItsComrade]

But why?

 

cuz imagine the future of this technology

[ItsComrade]

I'm just worried those connectors would fall apart under stress of walking around with it on your wrist all day.

[Trik'Stari]

Still waiting for someone to get their head out of someone elses ass and make a modular "tablet"

 

 

it's called a fucking DATAPAD GODDAMNIT

[zanduh]

Still waiting for someone to get their head out of someone elses ass and make a modular "tablet"

 

 

it's called a fucking DATAPAD GODDAMNIT

 

I think the reason this is taking off on watches faster than phones is because phones tablets, laptops, smartwatches all rely somewhat on their form factor as a value. Modular components means you forfeit that somewhat. I think that smartwatches can get past this only because the market is still in its infancy with very poorly defined parameters as to what the consumers want and what the product can feasibly do.

 

I'd love to be able to upgrade the battery and speakers and camera and processor on the Surface Pro 3 but I don't think I'd want it if it meant being twice as thick

[Tygron]

How's it better than phone blocks? Phone blocks is still just PCBs being slapped together and is nowhere near being finished. How can you compare that with this watch?

Man so many stupid comments on this forum, I need to take a break before I have a brain aneurysm.

Actually Project Ara which is the successor to that is supposedly due out early next year. So i'm really excited for that. And now this looks really really cool. Definitely want both of these. I don't really have use for the watch, but I wanna try it anyway.

[Trik'Stari]

I think the reason this is taking off on watches faster than phones is because phones tablets, laptops, smartwatches all rely somewhat on their form factor as a value. Modular components means you forfeit that somewhat. I think that smartwatches can get past this only because the market is still in its infancy with very poorly defined parameters as to what the consumers want and what the product can feasibly do.

 

I'd love to be able to upgrade the battery and speakers and camera and processor on the Surface Pro 3 but I don't think I'd want it if it meant being twice as thick

I just want a GPS module and a geiger counter on a tablet, as well as a solar charging panel or hand crank charging panel

 

Edit: Specifically, I want a GPS that works even if the satellite uplink has been lost, so that once it knows where you are, it always knows where you are.

[zanduh]

I just want a GPS module and a geiger counter on a tablet, as well as a solar charging panel or hand crank charging panel

 

lmao LET ME JUST CRANK CHARGE THIS 1440p DISPLAY 

 

*massive right arm*

[Trik'Stari]

lmao LET ME JUST CRANK CHARGE THIS 1440p DISPLAY 

 

*massive right arm*

Meh, if you needed to, you'd be able to. Wouldn't be that hard to charge the battery off of a crank would it?

[zanduh]

Meh, if you needed to, you'd be able to. Wouldn't be that hard to charge the battery off of a crank would it?

The problem is that most laptops use lithium ion cells in there battery packs. Lithium ion is designed to charge at a certain rate. You CAN make a hand crank charger, but to be powerful enough to charge a laptop at all would be something along the lines of wrist mountable. Using a gearing system, maybe even 1 designed to be like a 2 speed transmission, you could feasibly charge a laptop fully. 

You will need to make the stator out of plastic as a ferromagnetic stator core will cause added resistance making it harder to turn. Then you will need a peak control circuit that will only allow current through when it reaches the set voltage to eliminate the resistance of getting it up to the needed voltage. In AC generators you just want the peak, anything less is wasted effort. The most efficient way to do this is to wind the stator for higher AC voltage than needed and step it down with a small transformer, then put the resulting AC through a bridge rectifier that feeds a capacitor rated for 40-50% more than needed to stabilize the pulsing DC current to a smooth DC flow. 

A system like this will be a lot bigger than a simple dynamo flashlight so it will need to be mounted in some way. Wrist mounted kind of like a gauntlet would be a usable hand crank generator. 

 

- Some random engineer