How much would you pay for an implanted watch?

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  • edited March 2017
    Pretty sure I would pay 300+ too.
    I have been thinking about this sort of thing for a while too, but I don't really have the qualifications to actually design something (though I am getting there ever so slowly).

    For me, BLE connectivity, some sort of well designed power supply and a few readable LEDs would be all that is needed (for example i had a few concepts on how 9 RGB or bi-color leds would be enough to show a 12h time with 5 min precision).
    Haptic feedback sounds great.

    @cancerian for inductive charging, I could imagine strapping something like a blood pressure measuring thing over the watch with a long robust cable while asleep:
    image

    also a definite wish would be over-the-air software updates with a strong guarantee of not bricking the device (i think this is rather achievable if the main microprocessor is seperate from the bluetooth module and the bluetooth module is used as the main microprocessors programmer), along with open-sourced software).

    About the activation button: would it not be possible to use a gyroscope? I would happily trade wasted battery hours (daily charging with some tolerance would be fine for me, but im sure others wouldn't agree) for one-handed, low-effort readability.
  • Damn, I was hoping that this thread would have led to a product by now. But since it has been revived, has any progress been made @Griskard ? I have been thinking about the implantable watches a lot recently which brought me to this thread again after almost 3 years.

  • @Griskard I would also be interested in an implantable watch. If it was super high quality with Bluetooth capability, a notification/alarm vibration, and minute interval, I could see paying $300-500.
    I have used smart watches since they came out, and the only features (besides timekeeping) I have ever used more than once or twice are the notification vibration, music player control, and phone finder app.
    The phone finder and music player control would be very difficult to pull off without buttons (possible bacteria strongholds) and/or accelerometer. However, since there is already a need for an input of some kind to activate the LED's, perhaps you could hold the button down for x seconds to activate different features. For volume up/down, hold the button and rotate your arm, song selection, hold button, tilt arm forward or back. To activate phone finder, hot the button for 5 seconds, or something similar. For a watch with phone finder, music control, notification vibration, 10 year life, and minute timekeeping interval, I could see paying anywhere from $500-1000, especially if you switch to digital readout.

    As far as seams are concerned, how about using borosilicate or quartz glass. Both are able to be sealed to certain types of metal (kovar for instance) for a vacuum tight seal. The trick really is getting a metal that has the same coefficient of thermal expansion as the glass you use. I do not know if kovar is bio safe or not, but it might be worth looking at, even if it is only used around the window. If kovar is not bio safe, it should be possible to make an alloy that would work for the purpose.
    Welding the titanium case together would be the absolute best method of sealing, however the obvious drawback is if anything at all goes wrong internally, it's junk. To reduce the risk of damaging internal components, it would most likely need to be laser welded.

    The button would be the biggest problem. Short of coating the entire assembly in silicone(thus defeating the purpose of taking such great care to make it seamless) I can't really see a way to eliminate those seams without eliminating the button.
    What about including a tiny inductive sensor inside the watch? That way the user could activate the display with an implanted fingertip magnet, keychain magnet, or depending on sensitivity, any piece of metal.
    A capacitive sensor could also be used, but it would be much harder to zero out skin, and there would be many more accidental activations.
    I think most of the people interested in an implantable watch would be ok with magnetic activation. This eliminates the need for a button and all the seams associated with it.

    So, is this project still alive? What's the progress?
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