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Seiko TV Watch is now 20 years Old
TheGreatOrangePeel writes "In 1982 the Seiko "Television Watch" became available to buy. Now, 20 years later, the watch has become a bit of a rare item to find. When it was available new, it contained the following:
1-1/4" LCD Screen on wristwatch, Shirt pocket receiver, Case, Earphones, Owner's Manual." Apparently the small wonder is still the smallest TV commercially produced.
Now the real questions is, will the remote watch work with the the Tv watch?
Trying to be different, just like everyone else.
It was the giant dish you had to wear on your head that was a bother.
Well fuck, I can't masturbate to erotic TV commercials if the TV is mounted on my friggen wrist... it keeps moving back and forth, back and forth...
Masturbation requires concentration, which this device does not allow.
Bluetooth? But then it's release would be delayed too long. And it wouldn't work anyway.
This idea was invented by Shampoo.
here
This idea was invented by Shampoo.
My organization is known for studying the viability of certain technology products, including televisions.
We've found that the next place a TV makes sense is within cell phones. With phones getting high quality displays, it's relatively inexpensive (power/space/$) to add a television tuner.
We found smaller devices were not economical, due to the fact that most people already carry around a cell phone as a device.
We've also found that cell phones are displacing the sales of watches, as most modern cell phones have a server-synchronized clock built in.
Over time, we find that the cell phone will shrink into a watch-sized device - but that will take at lesat two more generations of development. Battery life and size is, as always, the limitation.
Seems to me one of the other portable TV's would be a lot more convenient, especially considering the improved screen size. Which you know, is probably a real darn good reason why it never cought on. ;)
Still, having a resolvable display in the early 80's was doing pretty darn good, even if it ended up being little more than a neat hardware hack.
http://www.snopes2.com/science/greatwal.htm
"If we take "space" to mean a low Earth orbit such as the one travelled by the Space Shuttle (roughly 160 to 350 miles above Earth), the Great Wall claim fails twice. First of all, it's not the only object visible from that distance: NASA's Earth from Space photographic archive (particularly the Human Interactions section) shows that pictures taken from low orbit reveal human-built structures such as highways, airports, bridges, dams, and components of the Kennedy Space Center. Secondly, even though other objects are visible at this distance, according to Shuttle astronaut Jay Apt, the Great Wall is barely discernable, if not invisible"
Free Mac Mini
Combine this with the world's smallest TV transmitter, and you're all set.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I remember talking about this in grade school all this dick tracy stuff. I touted it as being impractical and expensive, which it was but in retrospect were these guys ahead of there time or what. Well there is an museum peice for you. Put it right along side the star treck communicators.
the watch has become a bit of a rare item to find.
tell that to this guy who's selling one for 200 bucks.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I was a salesman at Bel Air Camera in Los Angeles
in 1982 and I remember selling these silly things.
Actually I remember selling ONE. It was bought by
David Hearst... Patty's brother. He wandered
around Westwood looking at the stupid thing and
bumping into people.
Come on, a story mentioning this thing showed up on the eternally spiffy memepool just a couple of days ago. 5:1 odds the article poster got it from there without giving proper credit. Show some manners, people.
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
some quotes:
...Gemini V astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad were able to spot, among other things, a special checkerboard pattern that had been laid out in Texas, a rocket-sled test in New Mexico, and the aircraft carrier that would later pick them up in the Atlantic, along with a destroyer trailing in its wake...
My life in the land of the rising sun.
That's neat, but it should at least be cable ready! Or have RCA jacks so I can run linux on my xbox, keep it in my backpack powered by a fuel cell, and use X on my wrist-watch TV during commercials. Best of all, by the time all of the above is available, I might be able to afford it within only a few lifetimes.
This would be cool, because I would assume that by now they could get it alot smaller (electronics part, not the screen because why would you want it?)
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
This was up a few days ago on the excellent memepool.com. Go take a look - you might like it.
"The new wave is not value-added; it's garbage-subtracted" - Esther Dyson, Dec 1994
This reminded me of a watch I had long ago...It was a PDA/Organizer Computer Watch. It actually had a version of GW Basic in the rom, and 256k of RAM, I believe. Here's a british version on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =941378559
"UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things."
And not so good either. With a small brick sized battery and antenna pack, these were hardly the portable pieces they seem to be.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I still think that digital watches are a neat idea.
It'l be obsolete in the US in 2007 unless it comes with a digital tuner. Analog broadcasts are to end. I don't want to pack a VCR or DVD along just to use the watch. I want one that will work at the ball park to watch the replay.
The truth shall set you free!