This Smartwatch Slides From Underneath Your Sleeve When You Get Notifications

The whole point of a smartwatch is to make texting, answering calls and e-mails more handy. Besides the occasional run, they’re supposed to be easy to reach “smartphones” – but are they? When you carry bags of groceries or do the dishes, you can’t really reach them to take a call. Unless there’s a flexible watch that moves in a way that makes reaching it easy-peasy. Like Cito #objectmagic

Cito is a prototype smartwatch devised by a team of researchers from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire and the University of Waterloo. Its goal is to stay in the wearer’s field of view so, no matter the situation, he/she can see the display. To do so, scientists had to connect it to several motors that can shift the face of the watch in the angle required by the user’s gaze.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ij14i3-Lac

So, let’s say you’re moving furniture or cleaning up the garage. If you’re using both of your hands, then there’s no way to turn the watch and read the display. For Cito though, there’s always a way. The device can angle and tilt towards you automatically, upon receiving the notification. The device adapts to you and no the other way around.

More often than not, our wristwatches get hidden under the long sleeves. If you can’t slide the watch from under the sleeve, because your hands are wet from doing the dishes, then you’ll need to remember to read that e-mail later. So, scientists mounted Cito on a platform that’s dynamic enough to extend but also rotate around the strap and orbit on its axis. This means that no matter the situation you’re in, Cito will be able to reach you.

The idea of a dynamic smartwatch is definitely a game-changer but we’ll have to wait a while until we see it on the market. In this stage, the majority of the watch’s hardware is in a large box that’s attached to the upper arm of the user so the team will have to find a way to make it smaller and aesthetically pleasing.