Wrist Watch Camera Now with Color Display

camborg writes "Casio announced (in this Japanese Press Release) a new version of the famous wrist watch camera, which goes on sale in japan on the 23rd of November. The new model features a STN 4096 color display to directly view the color images on the wrist. The watch has a bit updated look and feel. Everything else is pretty much the same as the WQV-3 series color wrist camera. No release date for the USA yet. Photos of the watch can be seen at http://www.i4u.com"

Comments

I Want One!!!

[hillct]

'nuf said.

Re:I Want One!!!

[fungus]

Thousands of people die every day. Get over it.

Re:I Want One!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Your post inspired me! Forget video watches and cell phones, screw all of that! From now on I am going to devote my life to raising those dead people back to life...

Those wacky

[Anonymous Coward]

Those crazy kiwis. They can do anything, even put a tv on a wrist watch.

A good use would be...

[Amon CMB]

Walk around with a porn image displaying on the watch. Innocent passerby would be in for quite a surprise!

Re:A good use would be...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, but for every good use of such a technology, there's an equally bad use of it. The trolls would but it and walk around with the picture from goatse.cx displaying on the watch. Needless to say, innocent passerbys would be in for quite a disgusting surprise.

Re:A good use would be...

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean: show your cool watch to women, point down, secretly press the camera button, and start a boob pictures collection.

watch

[nEoN nOoDlE]

yeah, the photos are in color... but does it tell the time?

Hmm. Question, question.

[eric_ste]

Since the site seems to be slashdoted and I can't see the specs, I'll ask you this:

Do you hook it up to the infinite cable or does it come with a "hat dish"?

Thanks, because it my make a difference for me.

Some more interesting devices

[Anonymous Coward]

All the best devices seem to come out of Japan! Here's a link on www.yahoo.co.jp which shows a kewl device which actually allows you to link between the watch and your PC (Windows support only, unfortunately). The text is in Japanese but there are plenty of pictures.

grrreeeeeeeat....

[jawad]

great, now we can get our exotic dancers in full (arright, 4096) colour...

Now what's a compelling reason to own one, again?

casio huh?

[faeryman]

I want a wristwatch sized Casio SK-1! loop my 1 second of recorded sound, and play that sweet 'human voice' (more like dying goose) tone over and over. (If you ever had an SK-1 you know what Im talking about...)

Re:casio huh?

[goatman.cx]

You're damn right. Best toy symphony demo song too. Here is where a guy at MIT named Joe assimilated his SK-1 into his modular synthesizer, and hacked MIDI interfaces onto the SK-1. So much to be done with that cheap little keyboard.

alrighty then

[llamalicious]

a new popup to compete with X-10, finally!!

yes yes, I know popups can be disabled. so shut it.

Hmm yes and no...

[pigeonhk]

Easier for us to take photos anywhere anytime...

Easier for us to be taken anywhere anytime too...

For example, a link from the press release, http://members.tripod.com/mcmach1/voyeur.html.

I'm not saying it's evil, but I'm quite sure there are situations that you don't want people to see =)

Re:Hmm yes and no...

[mliu]

heh, reminds me of the cellular phones here in Japan. Among the (numerous) ways that they're a million times better than American cell phones is that some of the more recent models have a built in digital camera, and you can email the pictures to your friends' phones. (All modern Japanese cellular phones have good enough displays to display small pictures on. Some even 24 bit color I think).

They're advertising campaign actually focuses on how you can use the cameras to take compromising pictures of people hehe. The common theme goes something like this:
A guy's sleeping at his desk, when he's supposed to be meeting this girl. The girl's friend sees this and snaps and picture and emails it to the girl. When the guy later shows up, and gaves a lame excuse, the girl triumphantly whips out her photo-cell phone and the guy is caught in his lie. Outside you see her friend doing a victory dance as the logo and theme music come on.

And just my opinion, but somehow having a watch with a built-in camera seems nerdy, but having a cellular phone with a built-in camera seems cool. Probably a hold over from the fact that calculator watches were never cool, but having the best cellular phone on the block has always been cool....

Re:Hmm yes and no...

[pigeonhk]

Just in case anyone is interested.

Yes, mobile phone with digital camera.

Nokia is going to release one, according to this infosync news.

Pretty nifty...

Re:Hmm yes and no...

[boris_the_hacker]

There is a tiny clip on camera availible for ericsson phones - about the same as a small DI-28 infra red modem - which sllows you to email and send via gsm the pictures. Pretty cool :)

Re:Hmm yes and no...

[Anonymous Coward]

From the article:

"Nokia has announced that the Nokia 7650 will be available in Europe and Asia during Q2, 2002, which most likely indicates that this specific model is dual-band GSM only

A phone with this technology will not arrive in the U.S. for several yearss, if ever.

Re:Hmm yes and no...

[Shanep]

Some even 24 bit color I think

The displays would have to be higher resolution than 65,536 pixels to warrant 24bit over 16bit. So greater than 320x200 pixels. Is this the case? I would highly doubt it.

My point being, that there is no point in being able to display more than 65,536 colours (simultaneously) if there are not that many pixels on screen. If there are only 64,000 pixels on screen, then obviously there are never going to be more than 64,000 colours displayed at any one time, which is usually what max colour specs are reffering to.

: )

Sorry to be so picky.

Probably a hold over from the fact that calculator watches were never cool

Hmmm, I'm imagining a watch version of the HP48GX... now that would be nerdy^2! The 5 pixel high time font might be a bit hard to read in the compact watch version though.

Translated product info anyone? :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

http://world.altavista.com/urltrurl?url=http%3A%2F %2Fwww.casio.co.jp%2Frelease%2Fwqv_10.html&lp=ja_e n&tt=url&urltext=&doit=done

I can see it now...

[doofsmack]

me: Like my new watch?
/me holds watch right in front of female's face so it has a clear view down the shirt
*click*
me: Thanks, gotta run!
Girl: But... WAIT!!!
/me is already out of the room

Re:I can see it now...

[KublaGirl]

Too bad you can't do this to take a picture of a guy's crotch. Damn it!

Even better...

[itwerx]

...pr0n sites could be two-way.
But the strippers would get dizzy.
(Think about it. :)

hmmm

[llamalicious]

Jpeg 176x144 resolution, something about 115,200 link speed (sounds like serial to me.)
unimpressed.

until it runs a trinary non-clock based system and has 9 megapixel resolution, and oh yeah, makes coffee, then I'll pass.

But damn, it's cool...

Re:hmmm

[llamalicious]

a troll with a # over 2.5 million calling me a newbie...

laff!

Good ol' Japanese new-tech

[goatman.cx]

I love this stuff! Wristwatch cameras, cellphones being used as multi-use video phone/PDA/digital camera/digital video recorder, let's not forget the vibrator that serves its purpose as a portable massager, portable fan, and soy sauce dispenser. Shit like that is cool!

Not In The USA

[istartedi]

No release date for the USA yet

I hope all those people who whine about how the US dominates "everything" are paying attention. The US always comes up short on these cool little gadgets that the Japanese invent. Remember the PS-2 shortage last year?

Re:Not In The USA

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but we are first with the useful stuff.

Think PCs, both Intel and AMD chips, Boeing airplanes, etc, etc.

Leading in gadgets isn't something the US needs to do. It would be nice however.

The USA is FULLY capable of doing so, if it was a priority. Our workers are capable, and there IS NOT a shortage of them. That is a LIE promoted by the mega-corps so they can get slaves (*) (i.e. H1-Bs) imported into the US and not have to pay workers well, and not have to invest in training, and so they can have workers who will work 100+ hours a week to avoid being deported.

The obsession with gadgets and "solutions in need of a problem" is much of the reason I didn't go to Comdex this year. (The fact it overlapped with Veteran's day and was otherwise inconvient alo contributed).

If the Comdex people just write off the low numbers as being due to September 11th, they are going to be in for a rude shock next year.

I would've gone, if there was anything approaching an even somewhat compelling reason to do so. But there wasn't and it wasn't worth the bother.

Sad.

(*) When a company get dictate to you what to do, or else they fire you and as a direct result you get deported, you are not free. A US citizen, or a legal non H1-B alien can say no and quit/get fired, and at least in theory get another job.

Working (for a specific employer, under their terms) under threat of deportation is servitude.

The H1-B policies basically put the employer in the position of making immigration policy. This is wrong headed. It can be unfair for the H1-B worker, the displaced American worker, and even a threat to national security, since the employer might want to gloss over security risks if it means cheaper labor.

Re:Not In The USA

[Anonymous Coward]

H1-B's are never for working class people. They are for engineers and computer programmers from other countries. They are not slaves. Once their visa is issued, it is valid for whatever the term of the visa is (1-4 years, usually). If the employee is fired or quits before that term is up, they can still stay in the country without being deported. H1-B employees are actually LESS likely to be fired than ordinary employees, since the company had to go through so much red tape in order to hire that person. If the person is a talented engineer or professional person, then he is welcome here. If not, then he won't be hired. But the H1-B worker is definately NOT an unskilled laborer.

Major factory work is ALWAYS done in Taiwan or China these days because it is too expensive to do it anywhere else. If you want to manufacture some computer electronics device, you do it in Taiwan. There are several reasons why. First, you can easily get all or almost all of the parts there. Once you get off the plane in Taipei, you'll be approached by representatives of parts distributors asking if you need resistors or capactitors or whatever. If you need time on an SMT line, you can get it there easily. If you need tooling done, you can get that there too. Whatever you want to make, if you have layouts and mechanical diagrams, you can find a high quality manufacturer there who can make it for you. Once your product is built, you can put them on a ship and send them anywhere in the world you want.

Even Japanese companies manufacture many things in Taiwan, since it's too expensive to do manufacturing in Japan these days. Japan has the same problem as the U.S. now: the working class are too wealthy. None of them will work for $2 per day anymore.

To a certain extent, even Taiwan (where factory workers are paid a mere $2/day and live in the factory dormatories) is becoming too expensive. Mainland China is starting to draw business away from Taiwan. Taiwanese manufacturing is still much higher quality than mainland Chinese, but that is changing.

Anyway, if the United States suddenly decided that it wanted to manufacture these things (clock radios, TV's, VCR's, camcorders, PDA's, computer motherboards, CD-ROM drives, et al.), it would take them years and years to develop the knowledge and expertise of the Taiwanese and Japanese manufacturers.

I'm not saying we couldn't do it. I'm just glad we don't want to.

Warning!

[zulux]

Do NOT give this watch as a gift to any farm vetrinatrian you know. The shutter button is too easily triggered if you know what I mean.

Tristan: "Seigfreid, come take a look at this photo on my wrist watch.."
Seigfreid: "My god! Is that Mr. Crowleys cow?"
Tristan: "I'm afraid so. I nip back out there and lance that abcess right away."
Seigfried: "And while you're at it, you might want to tidy up your watch - it's a bit rancid."

Re:Warning!

[Migelikor1]

Lovely reference to Herriot...I wonder how many of the slashdot crowd picked up on it. My favorite was when he dressed up in the thick rubber suit just to hand tools.

Who cares? Fix the fucking search already.

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF good are any links using search.pl?

Fun? Practical?

[CottonEyedJoe]

Ok, This device seems like it might be "fun" for japaneese teenagers. Sort of like the keychain computer animals that kids were supposed to "raise". If you've taken a look at the gallery you'd know that the actual images are of very little value, even for spy camming pervs.

And it dosent look like it runs linux....YET! Not to mention MacOSX. Maybe Steve Jobs should check into a similar device as the next link in the digital hub. Its the natural progression....iMac, iBook, iPod....and the new watch cam.....iCantSeeADamnThingWithThisSillyWatch.

Re:Fun? Practical?

[theancient2]

Why does everything have to run Linux? Or, more importantly, why does someone always have to point out whether or not product X runs or could potentially Linux?

I think it's much more relevent to discuss the possibilities of setting up a Beowulf cluster of these. You may complain that wristwatch camera doesn't have a big enough resolution, but imagine the quality you'd get with an array of 9 wristwatch cameras.

Re:Fun? Practical?

[zulux]

Why does everything have to run Linux?

If somthing can run Linux, it means the manufacturer hasen't locked the device down with propriatary mechanisims to keep you from using it in the way *you* see fit. It means the device is open. It means that you actually own it, and not mearly renting permently from the manufacturer.

Re:Fun? Practical?

[theancient2]

I suppose that's fine for people who like replacing the ROM on their watch with a version that can run Apache. Myself, I've never worried too much about the fact that my Timex probably uses some proprietary closed-source operating system.

Re:Fun? Practical?

[CottonEyedJoe]

I actually agree with you to an exent. When these things get to be practical computers with some kind of glasses that allow you to have a large workspace, then I want it running my favorite OS.

Your cluster might be interesting. Some kind of performace art thing where the performers combine to form "Wall of TV's" watch pictures. Call it something like "A really gay Monet Array".

I hope it fares better than the previous models

[alewando]

Because the reviews historically have not been kind.

It's neat. It's a swell toy. But it's expensive and produces photos of dubious quality. Anyone who has a couple hundred dollars to waste on something like this probably knows what he's getting into, but it's a damn shame the technology isn't quite there yet.

Watches are something everyone has, and it would be neat to get to the point where digital cameras are equally ubiquitous (albeit a bit scary from privacy and surveillance perspectives). But what are the odds that a consumer line like this will catch on when its flagship example is such a poor value? Most mainstream consumer products we see today started out expensive and crappy, but many more aren't around today because of those same drawbacks.

I suppose it'll change when another big player like Sony gets into the act. Though Sony is every bit as proprietary as Casio and perhaps more so, we'd at least benefit from having different proprietary techs banging it out on the open market. And maybe if I can transfer my low-res expensive watch photos to my low-res expensive pda, I'll feel better about having already wasted my money.

Re:I hope it fares better than the previous models

[wirefarm]

And maybe if I can transfer my low-res expensive watch photos to my low-res expensive pda, I'll feel better about having already wasted my money.

This might make you feel a bit better:
Palm and Wrist Camera.

It lets you transfer pics from the original wrist camera to a PalmOS device, via infrared.

Quite nifty.

Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo

class

[Anonymous Coward]

the more a watch does, the less classy it is.

Speak for yourself!

[wadetemp]

Watches are something everyone has

Speak for yourself! I never wear them. Knowing what time it is down to the second is not nearly as important as having wrist hair. Not by a long shot.

I always say, if you need to find out what time it is (within hour accuracy), then you're probably someplace (work) where your being on time matters to OTHER people. Let them put up a clock. :)

Webcam?

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be easier to sport a webcam on your wrist than hang stuff from your face, but I wonder if you'd remember to turn it off before you reached for your fly...

Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is a watch?

Neat.

[A_Non_Moose]

I remember making the old style box cameras and actually made one out of a film canister.

Had to use black tape on my finger for the shutter because the exposure time was 1sec or so.

This watch, like the canister camera is a neat toy but not really practicle.

Dunno if it could be increased in resolution and size, and maybe a memory stick added for image transfer it would be even cooler, but would still be just a neat toy of no practicle value.

The opposite is true now with digital cameras, than with "normal cameras"... consider that you can delete images from a digital camera and not from normal ones.
I forget if the question was asked here or over at arstechnica, but could we be losing our histroy (in images) because of digital cameras?

Think about it for a second, what photojournalist out there might delete by accident "that one photo" they hope to capture? With a film based camera you "have to wait" and then "judge the shot".

Neat toy, nice shiney object, bet it eats batteries like there is no tomorrow tho..batteries I'd wager that you can only get from the manufacturer.

I think this might improve my social life

[naleks]

I bet I'm not the only one who can't remember a name to save his life. (I have been known to forget my lover's name if it's at the end of a round of introductions.) What I do now is keep identifying information ("doctor," "big nose") about everyone in my Clie and do a quick find before I have to say "hi." With pictures will make this so much easier. Yeah, I know it will look hellishly geeky, but the geek factor of snapping pictures with my wrist-cam will be made up for by remembering people's names ... I hope.

(Right, and obviously I agree with an earlier poster, getting them into the Palm will make things even better.)

What's the point

[God_Retired]

Really. I dig integrating stuff. But all I want with a freaking watch is to tell time.

I can see the responses:

"Yeah but look you can punch the keys in a half-ass manner and type into it..."

"But look, it can tell the time in 15,000 different capitals..."

"Look how cool my kids look on my watch"

"My watch will be able to call my home and tell my computer to send my email to....blah, blah, blah"

Big freaking difference between a geek and a dork. People who think this type of shit is cool are dorks.

And yes, I'm sure that if everyone thought like me we wouldn't have running water in the kitchen. Fuck you and your black and white world. I'm living in the grey area.

These are the things...

[hyyx]

I like. It can be a great spy tool (make a display page that looks like a common digital), you'll always have it with you when you go "f$ck %!@#* I wish I had a camera", and even for a spontaneous go at a "rock-paper-scissors" game amongst friends. I really think that I want to hack this so that it can play Pac-Man. Remember those Pac-Man watches they used to have!?

You mean like this gadget?

[wideangle]

Istartedi wrote: The US always comes up short on these cool little gadgets that the Japanese invent.

You mean like this gadget? [keep those pesky noodles out of your hair]
Or this one? [take a bath without getting wet!]

Japan dominates the cool gadget industry so well, they wrote a HOW-TO .

Nice watch but...

[omega9]

A buddy of mine has the original Casio watch. It's resolution makes it worthless. When he snaps pictures of us we're essentially a blob of grey pixels. A color version just means we'll be pink(ish) pixels.

Now the eyemodule cameras for Handspring PDAs are just right. I had the original and now have an eyemodule2 and can't say enough good things about it.

• Takes 640x480 color pictures
  
• Captures short movies (although in Quicktime)
  
• Incredibly small and portable
  
• Comes with a nice custom cut foam aluminium case
  
• Nice geek factor(!)

Obviously if you want hi-res pictures then a watch or a PDA addon is not what you need. But compare these pictures taken with the Casio watch, and these pictures taken with an eyemodule2. If you're a Handspring owner it's absolutely worth checking out.

But what I really want to know is what's up with that Nokia 7650 phone features on the same page as the new Casio watch?! It's beautiful!

Bluetooth

[LinuxOnHal]

Something that would be really cool is Bluetooth or similar technology for transferring the images between devices. You could share them with a PDA, or a cell phone, to a printer, or even to others with the watch.

Does anybody know if there is a bluetooth chipset capable of fitting into a watch reasonably well?

Look and feel

[dstone]

The watch has a bit updated look and feel.

Favorite response:

a) A "bit" updated look and feel? Pfeh! Go for at least a byte updated or preferably a word updated look and feel for less eyestrain.

b) Wait, doesn't Apple have an "updated look and feel" copyrighted?!

c) Cowboy Neal.

Why?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Who needs this? It's almost completely useless to 99% of the free world. It's just technology for technology's sake. Sorry, but I need a practical use. This is like the Internet-capable refrigerator. Next thing you know we'll have Internet-capable toilet paper. Come on, folks, we have to draw the line SOMEWHERE!

Anyone who'd buy a useless piece of junk like this has far too much money to waste. This is worse than the people who buy $50,000 Cadillac SUVs.

James Bond

[boris_the_hacker]

What is really needed is an extra button and some sort of public announcement system - such that when you need to you can get the James Bond music going. It'd be too cool.

For only $999 you too, can be James Bond!.

Casio's Cranial/Rectally inverted Marketing...

[wowbagger]

I've been looking for a watch to replace my current one - it stores telephone numbers and appointments. The problem is that it has 6 buttons - entering any data into it takes several seconds, and there is no way to pull the data off. Every 18 months, you'll have to re-enter everything after changing the battery.

So, I start looking at the watches like Timex's DataMan watch, that can be programmed from a computer. However, the transfer is still one way - from computer to watch. I'd like to be able to pull the data up from the watch, too.

Now, Casio has such a watch - it uses IR to communicate to and from the computer (I don't know if it uses actual IRDA protocol or just some bastard protocol Casio came up with - but I know where I'd place my bets...). However, this watch does not come in a version with a calculator pad (back to several seconds to enter the data) and is only available on-line as far as I can tell (not a huge problem, but I'd like to try it before I buy it.)

Now, Casio is releasing watches with barometers, GPS, phones, pagers, cameras, and compasses, but do they actually release a watch that contains a set of useful features?

(No, I don't want a PDA. I want something small, strapped to my body in a convenient place, that does a very limited set of functions, not a device that I must carry in a large pocket and must remember to pick up in the morning.)

*i want implants*

[rainTown]

Cell phones, dig video camcorders, pda's, mp3 players... they're all getting smaller...how long till they become implantable??...One day...soon...i hope..then again someone has to spec out that kind of I/O and UI... what a brain teaser...no pun intended...

Wrist Watch Camera Now with Color Display

[ctrammell]

what is the deal with those things. is it really that hard to just carry a camra around? especially for the Japanese. they arleady always have one in there hands why do they need one on their wrist's? are we all going to wear bright yellow suits and run around pretending to be Dick Tracey? no. what was casio.

Re:palm link software

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, but when will someone write it for the Agenda VR3? c'mon guys!

Dick Tracy would be proud

[thumbtack]

Of course, B.O. Plenty won't like it one bit.