Wearables are a different animal altogether from other mobile consumer electronics like smartphones and tablets — especially when it comes to developing seamless experiences for users.
Let’s look at form-factor, for one. These sleek little wristwatches, arm bands, fitness trackers and health monitors need to actually be “wearable.” Chip size matters a lot when devices are designed to be small, light and durable.
They also need to consume minimal power and enable “always on” apps to work in the background for lengthy periods of time without a battery recharge. That’s especially important for fitness apps that can provide real-time speed, distance and time information on your wrist, or perhaps, for apps that depend on location information to push relevant content.
Broadcom engineers have zeroed in on these two vectors — power consumption and size — to make a difference in how wearable devices are getting to market. Broadcom’s expertise in these two areas make it a key partner to Google, which this week announced its Android Wear platform for wearable devices.
Android Wear has a big, bold vision. The idea is to enable this new class of connected devices to “understand the context of the world around you,” and for consumers to “interact with them simply and efficiently, with just a glance or a spoken word.”
That’s a tall order for the Android developer community, which is abuzz with all the possibilities for novel types of consumer experiences with wearables.
While it didn’t disclose any product details, Google did say it’s working with the industry’s top chip- and software-makers — including Broadcom — to make this vision a reality.
Broadcom, a longtime Android partner for mobile and more recently, for automotive, has all of the components in place to make it happen.
That includes a highly-integrated chipset platform that enables Android-based wearables to get applications processing, sleek graphics, audio processing, multimedia, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, GPS and Near Field Communication.
Broadcom has been working with Android engineers to minimize the SoC’s footprint and power usage on the board, and reducing the board size itself, so that manufacturers can make small form-factor products that can be worn on the body.
The momentum behind wearables — especially smartwatches — is expected to be a top trend this year.
From the Google Blog, some features supported by Android Wear include:
- Useful information when you need it most. Android Wear shows you info and suggestions you need, right when you need them. The wide variety of Android applications means you’ll receive the latest posts and updates from your favorite social apps, chats from your preferred messaging apps, notifications from shopping, news and photography apps, and more.
- Straight answers to spoken questions. Just say “Ok Google” to ask questions, like how many calories are in an avocado, what time your flight leaves, and the score of the game. Or say “Ok Google” to get stuff done, like calling a taxi, sending a text, making a restaurant reservation or setting an alarm.
- The ability to better monitor your health and fitness. Hit your exercise goals with reminders and fitness summaries from Android Wear. Your favorite fitness apps can give you real-time speed, distance and time information on your wrist for your run, cycle or walk.
- Your key to a multiscreen world. Android Wear lets you access and control other devices from your wrist. Just say “Ok Google” to fire up a music playlist on your phone, or cast your favorite movie to your TV. There are a lot of possibilities here so we’re eager to see what developers build.
Google has set a high bar with its wearables vision, and now the creative work is in the hands (and imaginations) of the vibrant Android developer community. At Broadcom, we’re all-in. We’re excited to help provide the underlying functionality that according to Google, will be “useful, ‘glance-able’ information that moves with you.”
About Author
Monika Gupta
Monika Gupta Monika Gupta is Senior Director of Product Marketing, Mobile Platforms in the Mobile & Wireless Group at Broadcom. She has nearly two decades of semiconductor experience in various segments such… More
