Shortly after the keynote at Lenovo Tech World today,we got hands on with the Dual-Screen Smartwatch concept, the Magic View.
The Magic View is an Android Wear device, which integrates a unique “virtual interactive display" via a small prism on the watch band. Users must bring the device up to their face and look through the prism to see a secondary display for tasks such as video viewing.
Looking inside the Magic View reminded us a lot of Google Glass. As you put your eye up to the prism on the watch band, you could see what looked like a display off in the distance. It was difficult to determine the relative size, but Lenovo claims this display is 20x bigger than the display on the smartwatch itself. Resolution was also undetermined, but it seemed to be low and about on par with the original Google Glass units.
The device itself was a bit warm and the additional display unit added some bulk, but these weren't immediate deal breakers. The design was still ergonomic and seemed like something that you wouldn't have an issue wearing all-day long.
This is definitely an early concept, but the fact that Lenovo are showing off demo units here means that they are serious about the ideas presented in the Magic View. If additional development can solve some of the heat issues, it seems like this would be a feature that doesn't detract from the core use of the device and can provide a potentially value new interaction method.
the output from the “magic
the output from the “magic view” is in the wrong place. I can understand why Lenovo did it, and as soon as it comes out I going to try and get one so I can retask it for where it should be displayed – UP the ARM!
Btw this is not my idea, the use of the arm as ideal touch surface has been used in a variety of ways. By using the arm you get two key advantages
a. its portable
b. it gives a great surface to Mouse or Keyboard on
Ironically whilst potentially very interesting for VR usage, a combination of lighthouse sensored wrist device and a leap motion can recreate the same solution with a virtual keyboard being placed on top of the arm in VR space.
There is also an irony in that the arm and fingers are only capable of being read for positional information, their is no capture from two of our bodies most sensitive touch surfaces