This smartwatch can move in five directions

If you love flaunting a smartwatch on your wrist, here's a new one that can rotate, hinge, translate, rise and orbit, and is "smart" in every sense of the word.

The prototype, named Cito, can automatically orbit around the wristband to allow viewing when the wrist is facing away from the user, rising to alert the wearer of a notification if the user is playing a game, hinging to allow a companion to view the watch face, and translating to reveal the watch face from underneath a shirt sleeve.

"Users want smartwatches that fit their lifestyles and needs," said Xing-Dong Yang, Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, US.

"The Cito prototype is an exciting innovation that could give consumers even more great reasons to wear smartwatches," Yang added.

It dramatically improves functionality -- by performing independently or combined -- as well as addresses limitations of the fixed-face watches.

Further, the technology can provide important benefits to wearers with physical disabilities or other impairments, the researchers said.

"Consumers will question the need for smartwatches if the devices are just not convenient enough. Cito proves the true potential of smartwatches and shows that they can be functional and fun," Yang said.

Cito will be presented at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Colorado.

In developing the prototype, researchers conducted two separate studies to confirm the usefulness, social acceptability and perceived comfort of different watch movements and usage contexts.

--IANS

rt/ruwa/bg