Variable-Configuration Smart Watch Display Modules
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional smart watches have a significant disadvantage due to their small screen size, which limits their functionality and usability compared to handheld mobile devices.
Innovation Solution
The design of smart watches with variable-configuration displays that can combine to provide a larger display area when needed, featuring multiple displays that can slide, flip, rotate, or unfold to form a coplanar, larger user interface, allowing for enhanced functionality and usability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of moving object
If multiple displays are used to increase display area, then the display area is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The display system is divided into multiple separate display modules that can be independently configured. Each display module can be positioned separately on the wristwatch body or attached to external surfaces, allowing the total display area to be segmented across multiple locations while maintaining individual module simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple display modules are arranged in a nested or layered configuration where smaller displays can be positioned within or adjacent to larger displays. This nesting approach maximizes the effective display area within the constrained wristwatch form factor without proportionally increasing the overall device volume or complexity.
2Ease of operation
If displays are made coplanar to form a unified interface, then the ease of operation is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The display modules are designed with dynamic positioning capabilities, allowing them to be adjusted between coplanar configurations for unified interface operation and non-coplanar configurations for compact storage. This dynamic adaptability enables the system to switch between ease of operation and compact form factor as needed.
Solution Approach 2:
Control electronics and software intermediaries manage the coordination between multiple display modules, handling the complexity of synchronizing coplanar displays while presenting a simplified unified interface to the user. The intermediary layer abstracts the mechanical and electrical complexity from the user interaction.
Data Source
AI summary
This invention is a smart watch with variable-configuration displays which combine to provide a larger combined display when needed. When a person does not need a large display area, then a plurality of displays on the watch fit around the person's wrist and/or arm in a relatively compact first configuration. When the person needs a larger display area, then the plurality of displays are moved into a second configuration which creates a large, coplanar, combined display.