Google Following Apple And Samsung To Smart Watch Party – Report

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Device detailed in patent filing hints at double display feature for Android watch

Google is thought to be working on a smart watch, joining Apple and Samsung, who have both indicated they are working on similar products.

The smart watch market is currently dominated by small-time tech players, including Kickstarter success-story Pebble.

Google is already in the wearable tech market with its Glass spectacles, and the smart watch would link to these and/or phones running Google’s Android. Citing a person briefed on the project, the Financial Times reported the smart watch is being developed by the Android team at Google.

android_logoAndroid smart watch coming?

It is believed the watch will supplement phones running the Android  – but there was no information on when the device would be launched.

A patent application from last year indicated the tech giant is eager to get involved in the smart watch game. It includes claims of a device whose “tactile user interface includes a touchpad covering at least 75 percent of a lateral surface area of the base”.

It also details a “flip-up” feature, allowing for two separate screens. In gruesomely mangled patent-speak, the application reads: “The top display displays a first set of information for viewing and the inside display displays a second set of information for viewing different from the first set of information, the first set of information being considered acceptable for public viewing by a user,” the filing reads.

The application also describes an onboard camera.

Samsung confirmed it was producing a smart watch earlier this week, with Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile division, saying a device was on the way. No further details were released.

Apple has not offered any such confirmation yet, but a patent filing indicated the company had something in the pipeline. Rumours have suggested, rather unimaginatively, it will be called the iWatch.

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