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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

HowStuffWorks "How Smart Watches Work"

How Smart Watches Work

by Robert Valdes

Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks article:

Valdes, Robert.  "How Smart Watches Work."  13 April 2005.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/clocks-watches/smart-watch.htm>  16 March 2010.
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The Fossil Abacus Smart Watch. See more timepiece gadget pictures.

There's no doubt that wi­th the popularity of devices like BlackBerry, Palm Pilot and Treo, the trend in technology is to get more and more "connectivity" into smaller and smaller packages. The next step in this technological evolution is the Smart Watch.

Smart Watches give people access to news, weather, sports, stocks, horoscopes, MSN Instant Messenger, Microsoft Outlook and much, much more -- all from a wristwatch. In this article, we'll look at the technology behind the Smart Watch.

Smart Watches work using a technology Microsoft developed called Smart Personal Object Technology, or SPOT. Microsoft introduced SPOT at Comdex in 2002. Chris Schneider, Senior Program Manager of SPOT, describes the technology:

SPOT is a new computing platform designed to bring the power of .NET to everyday objects. SPOT allows for enhanced miniaturization, low power consumption and a low cost solution allowing for accessories such as watches to become more purposeful through the power of software.

Other Smart Gadgets

­­ At CES 2003, Microsoft announced that the Sma­rt Watch would be the first wide-scale application of SPOT. The technology could potentially be integrated into all kinds of everyday objects, turning things like key chains and refrigerator magnets into sources of useful data. For instance, a portable oven timer might be SPOT-enabled and connected to a service that provides hundreds of recipes.

Let's look at how SPOT works in the next section.

Go there...
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/clocks-watches/smart-watch.htm

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