8 ms·
Show HN: Our Hackable E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android
- spoiledtechie 15y agoI personally thought kickstarter wasn't funding commercial ventures? This is a commercial venture, is it not? Can someone please enlighten me?
- randall 15y agoIt can be for-profit, it just has to be "creative". Meaning it can't be an MLM, but a play / music video about said MLM would be just fine. Designed products fall into creativity.
- drumdance 15y agoI don't think that's the case. A friend of mine raised money via Kickstarter for his company. See http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ucffool/gaming-dice-in-chocolate-and-sugar http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ucffool/gaming-dice-in-c...
- cs702 15y agoLooks really neat, but I won't buy it, because: * It requires regular charging -- at least once a week, according to the kickstart page. Who wants more cables dangling from the desk or night table? Who wants to keep remembering to charge one more device? * Apps for this watch are necessarily inferior to those already available for smartphones. (Indeed, the whole point of modern smartphones is that they 'appify' specialized devices like this watch.) Who wants to carry an extra device? Instead of simplifying my life, this watch would make it more complex!
- ckrailo 15y agoYou won't buy it because it requires charging and because it displays things from your smartphone? I'm... not really sure what to say.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jrockway 15y agoWhen people are bored at work they re-engage their minds by posting the most negative comment they can think of. A lot of people that read HN are bored at work.
- guylhem 15y agoSorry but the OP stated valid points, which I fully agree with, yet did not take time to post because they were not very constructive and would not add to the discussion. I guess there are more than 2 of us. The charging part is the #1 problem for me. I would buy a device which could be extracted from the wristband (ala ipod mini) and would not require cables (ie with a charging mat). I would even pay a premium for a device which would not have me remove it from my wrist for charging (don't know how it can be done, but it should!) Having to care about battery life is just adding complexity for minor advantages compared to a standard dumb watch, therefore I'm not buying it, but please do not discard such arguments just because of some "negativity at work" theory.
- jrockway 15y agoI guess this doesn't faze me since I use a Garmin GPS watch for running, and it obviously needs to be charged regularly. Complex electronic devices need energy, most cheaply obtained from your wall. Radios specifically use a lot of energy, making regular watch batteries a poor value proposition. I guess I've accepted that Kickstarter projects aren't going to change the fundamental laws of physics or invent something like a battery-size nuclear reactor for their project, so I don't get upset when an electronic gadget needs to be powered. That's all.
- guylhem 15y agoI also purchased a Garmin forerunner - now catching dust. Without changing the law of physics, an eink device whose main function is to display time should be designed to work between 6 to 12 months on a single charge or battery (CR2025 and the likes) to get my money. If it can't do that and have a fancy CPU and a fancy radio, remove the radio, use an AVR, whatever it takes. Alternatively, an inductive charging mat were you can lay your wrist while typing or a device that can be removed from the wristband (like an ipod mini) doesn't seem impossible with todays tech.
- bigiain 15y agoMy grandparents would have thought the idea of a telephone that needed "charging" was stupid. To me, this thing _isn't_ a watch, in the same way a smartphone isn't a phone - they occupy the same space as a cellphone/watch and they replicate all the functionality of what they're displacing, but they do _so_ much more as well. Would I give up my "whole internet in my pocket" that i get with my smartphone in return for going back to only charging my dumb-phone once a week instead of every night? _Hell no!_ Having said that, I do wonder whether I need _another_ smart" device to add at the bottom of the colo/cloudaccounts/homeserver/desktop/laptop/tablet/smartphone device chain. I didn't _think_ I "needed" my iPad when I bought it, I thought it would just be a cute tech-toy, but it's become an indispensable enough part of my life that I'd replace it the same day I lost/damaged it. It _may_ be that this "watch" carves out and fills some new niche in my life that nobody is really sure what shape it is (or even if it exists). It _might_ end up being another gadget gathering dust in the drawer, it might like my Apple Newton be an idea a decade ahead of it's time, but it might also be a game changing new device category. For ~$100 I'll accept those odds. (I've certainly "wasted" that sort of money on far less worthwhile stuff in the past…)
- yurisagalov 15y agolooks awesome, and just in time for me to replace my broken analog watch. Congrats!
- rubergly 15y agoNote that it says they ship in September.
- erohead 15y agoWe've made a lot of improvements over our first version. Added iPhone support (finally) and a framework that allows multiple apps and watchfaces to run simultaneously.
- brk 15y agoDoes it work natively with iOS, or does it require hacks like jailbreaking? I bought one of the other programmable watches (forget the company name, I think it's a YC company?) that initially claimed iOS support, but the caveat was you had to jailbreak your phone and install some random stuff. Wasn't really feasible for my application.
- erohead 15y agoPebble works natively with iOS 5. We are that YC company!
- brk 15y agoThanks, but I was thinking of InPulse. I bought like literally the first one (still have it somewhere if anybody wants it).
- kefs 15y agoDid you watch the video? This is inPulse (see 0:23) Also, for skimmers, it's under PROJECT BY: > Eric and his team have been designing smartwatches for 3 years. Their first product was the inPulse smartwatch for Blackberry (www.getinpulse.com). inPulse has been covered by Engadget, The Verge, Gizmodo, NYTimes and more.
- brk 15y agoNo, I didn't watch the video until your comment. I prefer to skim a page to get the relevant info, most video demos go way too slow for my preference and waste a lot of time on bits I'm not directly interested in. If this is from the inPulse group I would have honestly expected that to be more prevalent on the page instead of a casual mention in the video. This was presented, IMO, as if the "Pebble" was an all new thing... No mention of inPulse, Kickstarter campaign usually implies "new stuff", etc.
- karanbhangui 15y agoCongrats to Eric and team! This looks great! Epaper is a huge plus for outdoor use.
- hv 15y agoI don't think it's real e-paper, it looks to be a Sharp Memory LCD (http://www.sharpmemorylcd.com/1-26-inch-memory-lcd.html http://www.sharpmemorylcd.com/1-26-inch-memory-lcd.html -- the specs are identical). In fairness, Sharp are positioning those LCDs as a kind of e-paper work-alike, and they do work very well. The Nike+ watch for example uses that exact screen.
- eof 15y agoI don't have an iphone or android and don't really plan on it. Obviously I can talk to it via bluetooth with my laptop or whatever, but does this thing need to be in constant proximity to a device; ie is it basically just a dumb terminal?
- icebraining 15y agoAccording to their blog, it runs C programs (written with an SDK they'll release) on a built-in ARM Cortex-M3, so it seems to be more than a dumb terminal: http://www.getpebble.com/blog/2012/04/10/pebble-sdk/ http://www.getpebble.com/blog/2012/04/10/pebble-sdk/
- Yarnage 15y agoThis looks really cool but I'm so very confused about it being a kickstarter. Is this basically operating as a store front or are you still in the fund raising stage?
- Swifty 15y agoIf you go down on the kick starter page, they say that they have a prototype, and the funding is for: "- Production tooling - Large component order - Global Bluetooth certification" so it looks like the funding is to take it from a working prototype to the finished product.
- Yarnage 15y agoI guess I'm trying to figure out if they're shipping them immediately or not. It almost sounded like they were. I'll skim over the page some more. EDIT: Nevermind. I figured it out. Reading...
- 13rules 15y agoThe Kickstarter page says estimated delivery September 2012
- 13rules 15y agoJust in the time that I was watching the video and reading about it (and buying one) the funding went from around $67K to over $92K now! Amazing!!
- slug 15y agoTexas Instruments was selling the eZ430-Chronos for $25 the other day, it sold out. http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos , http://tideals.com/ http://tideals.com/ It doesn't have bluetooth so this watch has an upper hand, but the chronos has a data transceiver for firmware upgrade, communication with health monitors and interfacing to the PC through an included RF dongle, along with xyz accelerometers , pressure for altimeter and temperature sensor. It's completely programmable with a provided IDE or msp430-gcc if you feel so inclined. One of the models has 433MHz frequency which can, for instance, allow you to interface with many remote controlled devices (garage door). On the link above and on youtube you can find a ton of videos with demonstrations. I managed to scoop one for me and posted the daily deal on HN a few days ago, but it didn't gather much interest :)
- anykey 15y agoI'm currently working with these for a senior design project...I must say, I'm not a huge fan. You can do some neat things with the accelerometers, but the RF range is severely limited. Having worn one for extended periods of time, I must say that it's not something I'd enjoy wearing around. It's bulky and a bit unsightly. Still, it's fun to hack with, and you can do some cool things with accelerometer data. Definitely worth the $25.
- guan 15y agoTI also makes a similar Bluetooth compatible watch: http://www.metawatch.org/ http://www.metawatch.org/
- gonzo 15y agotechnically, TI doesn't make this, but the Metawatch guys are very tight with TI, and, IMO, well ahead of inPulse.
- eduardoflores 15y agoI've backed the project. The main reason for me is that it's a whole, integrated platform with the smartphone. It's meant to be an extension of your phone, not only a watch with wireless/accel capabilities. I love it.
- drivebyacct2 15y agoAfter seeing so many alternatives, I was really dying to see an e-paper incarnation. This would be awesome and it would give me a reason to get back into embedded C-types. I would loooove to see a watch like this integrate NFC as well that could be used in applications. Think PKI in NFC on your wrist. Want to get in your office, dorm room, car? Just hold your watch up to the handle and it unlocks.
- mhd 15y agoThe SDK sounds very promising, ripe for hacking. I guess you could do some bluetooth triangulation (plus accelerometer fine-tuning) to "localize" it for different rooms of your house.
- rohansingh 15y agoBrilliant. I've been looking for something with the functionality to replace my old SPOT watch, and it looks like this is finally the ticket. Also looks like there's a "hacker" package available too which includes a prototype and early SDK access.
- limmeau 15y agoWon't the epaper pixels wear out after a finite number of transitions? After all, a year has millions of seconds to display...
- rkudeshi 15y agoDoesn't look like it shows seconds in the "normal" watch view. Only does seconds in the stopwatch mode.
- GuiA 15y agoStill a valid concern... a year has over 500k minutes to display. I don't know enough about eInk to know if they have a certain "life expectancy", any clarifications by someone with knowledge on the topic would be great!
- carterschonwald 15y agoNo, you're thinking about ssd drives. The issue with e-ink is that pixel refreshes use power, so eink devices are optimized to try to minimize the number of refreshes used. For example some of the newer kindles try to do a screen full refresh every 6 pages so that the battery life is longer. There is no wear for eink, same as for lcds
- limmeau 15y agoIf the epaper display involves white and black pigments travelling physically through an oil droplet, then I doubt that the lifetime of a pixel is infinite. Can't find lifetime specs on eink.com, though, only a claim that 90% of the displays will live 10y at typical usage, whatever that means (one page-flip per minute?).
- jaxn 15y agoI think this is a really exciting space and have been wanting a connected watch for some time. Here are some other options: MotoACTV: https://motoactv.com https://motoactv.com IM Watch: http://www.imwatch.it/ http://www.imwatch.it/ Meta Watch: http://www.metawatch.org http://www.metawatch.org WIMM One: http://www.wimm.com/ http://www.wimm.com/ Are there others? (iPod Nano watches not included since they don't connect to anything)
- archivator 15y agoSonyEricsson LiveView: http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/accessories/liveview/ http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/accessories/liv... The watch is just a screen + radio, apps are entirely contained on the phone.
- Timothee 15y agoIsn't this filmed in Y Combinator's office? What's the connection with YC?
- erohead 15y agoGood eye! We're a YC-backed company.
- Timothee 15y agoOk. The fact that you're doing a Kickstarter project confused me a bit, but the explanations in other comments make sense in your context. By doing this, you get validation of your product, plus the money and a much better position when you do raise money. Good luck!
- psychotik 15y agoWhy'd you choose to raise money via Kickstarter instead of going the traditional funding route? I have my theories, but I'd love to hear what specific benefits you have using this model.
- slantyyz 15y agoSeems to me that the Kickstarter use case here has less to do with funding than gathering serious commitments to buy so that there's not a warehouse full of unsold inventory.
- sgornick 15y agoI wonder how PayPal allows preselling for this but if you or I were to try the same thing PayPal would put a 6 month freeze on the funds once they figured out that orders aren't immediately shipped.
- betterth 15y ago(I am not an expert, this is just what I think) The problem is: you need tens of thousands of dollars for a single manufacturing run. You can either raise capital by selling equity (traditional investment), or raise capital by preselling your device using Kickstarter. (Obviously there are more options). This is basically the best of both worlds approach. The getting your cake and get to eat it too: you get the capital AND keep all of your equity, with a healthy dose of knowing the demand of your product before beginning your first run.
- rubergly 15y agoWhat is the process like for using it on iPhone? Do you need to always be running a companion app in the foreground? Have you considered adding support for Google Voice, if you can't access native text messages?
- lukeholder 15y agoI want to know this also.
- erohead 15y agoOur companion app runs in the background on iPhone (thanks to a new exemption for Bluetooth accessories in iOS 5). We will try to get Google Voice SMS messages working on iOS.
- j45 15y agoVery cool! I've long since wanted to do this with an iPod nano and wristwatch accessory..... Except no connectivity. My wishes for a product like this: 1) built in apps should be as polished and optimized and biotin apps so its truly ready to go for the majority. 2) app functionality I've long wanted: - I hope it comes standard with caller id app - weather feed - email notification as id like Basically a subset of my smartphone features on my wrist. Customizability wise, id love to be able to have an interface to build a dashboard.maybe someone will create a Web app that I can create my own data feeds and publish into an app on my watch. Good luck, look forward to seeing it when it comes out!
- nextparadigms 15y agoWell, from the video it looks pretty good. But is e-paper the best display technology to use here? Doesn't it get ghosting? What about PixelQi?
- aiscott 15y agoIt does not appear to be e-ink, and they do not claim to be e-ink... The kickstarter mentions a backlight, which makes me think it is not e-ink. I can't say for sure, but the display appears to be this one: http://www.sharpmemorylcd.com/1-26-inch-memory-lcd.html http://www.sharpmemorylcd.com/1-26-inch-memory-lcd.html or something like it. It's an always on display with ultra low power consumption for static displays, so I think that is what they basis of the e-paper name. Seems a little dubious to me, but the watch still is very neat.
- bostonvaulter2 15y agoThe transitions (such as sliding animations) seem too fast to be e-ink as well.
- stbtrax 15y agoThanks for finding this, I failed to come up with anything searching for that resolution and size with e-ink and e-paper in the search keywords.
- jeremyarussell 15y agoSo I'm wondering, does it support running as a companion for a BT enabled Laptop or desktop with BT? That would be great but I didn't see mention of regular linux/windows/mac support.
- tylermenezes 15y agoDoes it work properly with Android yet? I bought the inPulse, but it didn't actually work with my Android. The website said it would only work with Cyanogen Mod, which is stupid to begin with, but even running Cyanogen Mod it never actually recognized the watch. Unfortunately it was a gift out of the return period, so I couldn't get a refund.
- jazzychad 15y agoLooks awesome, Eric! Can't wait to hack on one. If only it ran on a dcpu-16, you'd have a super marketing combo :)
- brittspace 15y agoI would gladly pay the Hacker Special price if we could get a prototype and SDK this month or early May. Any chance of this happening instead of having to wait until August?
- burningion 15y agoAwesome product! Great to see another startup using Kickstarter to get going. I started mine two days ago, I'm trying to raise the money to pay Twilio fees for giving my intelligent journal to 10,000 people in developing countries. Can't wait to see the success you guys have, Kickstarter is a great platform! That being said, I think a Kickstarter is much more appropriate for physical products than it is software products. People like being able to get physical things, and being a part of the process.
- steve19 15y agoWhat is e—paper and how does it compare to e-ink? How does it perform in direct sunlight?
- icebraining 15y agoAFAIK e-paper is essentially a term that encompasses of paper-like displays, including e-ink. This probably uses the latter.
- nextparadigms 15y agoIt's probably a transflective display like PixelQi (one of its modes at least).
- thechut 15y agoI already have an inPulse but this is so cool I just backed Pebble on Kickstarter too. I really hope the battery life is as good as you are claiming, because the 20ish hour bat life on my inPulse is currently the biggest pain point. Great work guys, I'm glad to see you progressing so quickly. Any Kickstarter bonuses for the early inPulse adopters?
- stjarnljuset 15y agoHow do you like the inPulse watch?
- thechut 15y agoI like it a lot. I thought I would wear it more when I was out and about but due to the short battery life my primary use of the inPulse is at home. Usually when my phone is plugged in and charging in the other room. My inPulse allows me to see anything important on my phone without having my phone in my pocket. I think the reduced profile of the Pebble along with the increased battery life will be an absolute game changer. I hope to wear my pebble all the time.
- stjarnljuset 15y agoSorry I didn't see this earlier, but thanks for the review! I also have the same problem where I'd leave my phone on a desk at home and won't notice if I get any messages when I'm in the other room, so this makes the Pebble more tempting.
- thechut 15y agoI like it a lot. I thought I would wear it more when I was out and about but due to the short battery life my primary use of the inPulse is at home. Usually when my phone is plugged in and charging in the other room. My inPulse allows me to see anything important on my phone without having my phone in my pocket. I think the reduced profile of the Pebble along with the increased battery life will be an absolute game changer. I hope to wear my pebble all the time.
- kolev 15y agoBasis is $199 and comes (will come) and adds (will add) a lot of value. $99+ is a little too pricey, I think. Those are two are different products, of course, but still.
- ricksta 15y agoDo you need to be on MFI to access the bluetooth on iOS? If so what's the process of getting on?
- davidcann 15y agoYou do if you want to transfer custom data. Some controllers get away with using the keyboard Bluetooth profile. You apply to MFi here: https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/ https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/ But pretty much everything else is under NDA, unfortunately.
- icodeforlove 15y agoI didn't have to think twice about backing this project. I can't wait to be able to view some statistics (like daily page views) from a website on my wrist. This will help satisfy my information addiction!
- iuqiddis 15y agoOut of curiosity, any reason for not using Bluetooth 4.0?
- dcosson 15y agoIs there any kind of side-lighting or other way to see the display in the dark?
- adahm 15y agoWish this would have come out about 6 months ago. Spent about $350 on the Motorola MotoActiv. It's a great GPS fitness device with bluetooth, and right now is definitely more functional that this watch, but it's still fairly clunky. The fact that it isn't open source means that you have to rely solely on updates from Motorola themselves. The bike computer function is lacking and the bluetooth linking isn't great, especially when you're already using a heart monitor. Although obvious downside is having to carry your phone with you when working out but that's already something my wife does anyway. It will depends on how robust the apps become, but this could be a major win for these guys.
- iRobot 15y agoGet in before the i-watch and the patent nightmares
- DenisM 15y agoWhat are the dimensions? Can you add a picture on a female wrist?
- trentfowler 15y ago>Can you add a picture on a female wrist? 01:36 in the video.
- hartror 15y agoI love the technology but aesthetically the unit itself looks pretty horrible to my eyes. Watches are one of the few accessories men can wear and it always saddens me that these types of wearable electronics are always so ugly.
- merraksh 15y agoatheistically Did you mean "aesthetically"?
- hartror 15y agoQuite, fixed thanks.
- schiffern 15y agoI don't think it's so bad. Of course I'm an "Apple snob," so geometric minimalism appeals to me. What watch do you find attractive?
- swah 15y agoIpod nano with rubber band looks better than this product, unfortunately. The bezel is too wide, and it shold also be squareish (like the Ipod).
- zith 15y agoI agree. I would love a watch with this technology that looks like a classic mens watch. Brown leather and a simple round display.
- ricardobeat 15y agoI was expecting to see BT4/LE in use. Any reason to stick to the more power-hungry 2.1?
- pg_bot 15y agoLooks like a cool little product, I would buy one if I wore watches. My only suggestion would be to stop designing your dial as if you had a round face to work with, your display is square so you should design accordingly. All of the analog versions you show are made for a round dial and they end up looking cramped and awkward.
- RoryH 15y agoAnybody tried one of these? the imWatch? http://www.imwatch.it/ie-en/ http://www.imwatch.it/ie-en/ I'm curious to hear what they are like... disclaimer: I too succumbed to the Pebble deal on Kickstarter... Moooaaar gadgets!!
- rl41 15y agoThis is the project that convinced me to enroll in Systems Design Engineering at University of Waterloo!
- Ecio78 15y agoWhat about this one? http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/12/sonys-149-smartwatch-finally-lands-in-the-u-s/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/12/sonys-149-smartwatch-finall...
- steele 15y agoThis caught my eye. I've been looking forward to mybasis and wish these things would merge.