Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Google is looking to produce a Pixel smartwatch. Déjà vu all over again.
This rumour comes from a patent that Google applied for early last year for using Soli gestures in a smartwatch. The patent provides for an optical sensor embedded into a future smartwatch and will use a Project Soli radar chip to detect gestures through movements of fingers, a wrists or the arm wearing the watch.
The chipset is apparently designed to be small and power efficient (unlike the battery hog one that is in the Pixel 4) and the gestures will be resistant to normal movements and “noise”. The patent shows off some of the gestures Google is working on and include a hand relaxed to being clenched gesture (don’t get angry while wearing a watch?), a tap gesture along with a turning and a twisting gesture.
While the patent was filed in January last year it was only published last week by the US Patent Office and of course there is no indication that Google ever plan to bring this to market. Given their acquisition of Fitbit though you can be sure they will be looking to bring some of their innovations to the smartwatch market in the future but whether that is in a Fitbit or a Pixel Watch is unknown.
Just how far into the future that will be is anyone’s guess — we can hope for this year, again, right? I’m definitely not holding my breath on this smartwatch innovation ever making it into a Pixel smartwatch — I’ve believed that rumour too many times in the past.
