Shimmering Smartwatches

We examine the nature of smartwatches and explore their associated user interface design space in this paper. Several smartwatches are using small graphical displays and as such are adopting similar forms. However, there are indications that other designs could be feasible. We discuss how smartwatches might use non-graphical displays and still offer "smart" capabilities. To demonstrate feasibility, we present two smartwatch prototypes and show how LED arrays can be used to dynamically support several functions needed by smartwatch applications. Finally, we discuss some tradeoffs associated with this approach and point to additional opportunities for investigating smartwatch designs.