Could your hand become a computer screen? Yes it can. A smartwatch prototype from the Chinese tech company Haier known as the Asu went on display at the Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. It is not sleek or stylish and is one of the few tech pieces that gets larger rather than smaller. The jury is out on whether the Asu is worth it or if it will be a flop but the idea is certainly new.
What is the Asu
The device is not sleek, it is described as bulky or boxy. A screen on the watch allows the user to control it from there. The smartwatch though hides a projector on the right hand side and displays it on someone’s skin. The projector has a resolution of 480×854 so what is projected is easy to read.
A watch with a projector?
So far only a little bit of information can be displayed via the smartwatch’s projector. Phone numbers or text messages are expected to be the most popular and the device can be integrated with a fitness tracker and it can display the information from that and it also includes a stopwatch. It can also display a custom light-based tattoo or a custom doodle that is entered on the touchscreen. Whatever is displayed can be projected onto the skin or onto something solid.
The Asu has 1 gigabyte of memory, has a 1.2 Ghz processor, has a heart-rate sensor, GPS, 4G LTE support and a gyroscope. It is resistant to dust and low pressure bursts of water. Quite a feat of technology that can only get better. It’s biggest draw is that it can project information related to workouts while providing a different space to start, pause, resume or end a session and with the information in two different places the wrong button cannot be hit.
Is it practical?
Now the big question is how practical will this be? No one really knows for sure. It is a novel item but some do not see an application for this. Of course the technology for this can be integrated into other mediums as well. We may never get to find out as the device will only initially be marketed in China and if popular expand into other markets. When tested prototypes have not performed well and experts are not expecting it to do well when put on sale. It just goes to show how hard it is to truly innovate in the tech field.