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HP Making a Dick Tracy Watch For the Military
eldavojohn writes "HP announced a device like Dick Tracy's watch, with a target user base being the US military. CNN describes it as 'a flexible display that shows maps and other strategic information to soldiers in remote combat fields. The watch's screen will be made of plastic and it will run on solar energy, making it less likely to malfunction or run out of power in a tense scenario.' HP says a prototype will be done within a year. This new device hinges on recent display technology that HP says it has been developing for 10 years. The flexible displays are a mere 50 microns thick."
At least our yearn to kill each other produces some pretty cool toys every few years.
Was Dick Tracy's watch more like Dick Tracy's sleeve? If it's anything like the dimensions of the watch I've got on my left wrist right now, it won't be able to show you anything but the time.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
What is flat top doing with my watch?
Well, HP just bought Palm. Use your imagination.
WebOS based flexible low-power display smart "phones" that can either be wearable, or as a small carryable.
Translate the same tech over into the WebOS based slate, and you have a revolution in computing.
iPad nothin'. WebOS is the future. HP and Palm are going to take us there.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
And then realized that there was really no more to the linked article than what was in the summary. Are there any better links?
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Why don't they call it a Turanga Leela Wrist-Kejigger?
I am officially gone from
That's great and all, but how useful can a display of that size be? Even if they make it like one of those watches with the huge faces, it'll still be tiny for looking at maps or trying to read much info.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
Well, HP just bought Palm. Use your imagination.
Ok, I did and I come up that maybe they will use some palm style interfaces on the watch.
Now what? :D
He asked about a consumer version.
Big Fucking Watch.
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Palm OS on a watch? Already done ...
http://www.gizmohighway.com/personaltech/fossil_palm_watch.htm
Since they seem to spend so much time in the desert, this should work out fine.
You're absolutely correct. Been there, done that with all but the flexible screen and data in the cloud. I wonder if the GP has even seen the iPad TV commercials? You're not going to want to share your photos, watch a movie or read a book on a watch-sized screen. Commercialization of this device is no threat to iPad.
It's got that laser that can burn through steel and trigger detonators and stuff. Maps??? How boring.
Just so you don't languish in the void of uncertainty, at least one of us gets the reference.
Now, I'd like for you to listen to some of my poetry...
When HP took over EDS, it got the contract for the NMCI, possibly the biggest cluster-fuck in DoD history according to my Navy friends.
I wouldn't trust HP to supply soldiers with a working Timex, let alone something with telecommunications abilities.
No, but if the military version will be able to show maps that are actually useable it's probably bigger than your average (or above average) watch.
The "Dick Tracy watch" from the comics (and movie) is a two-way video phone. This isn't a Dick Tracy watch.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Well, if you do night ops, you're generally asleep during the day or doing LPOP. You just want to be careful about leaving a glinty little solar panel out if you're trying to be tactical.
Most military comms are like what you've heard in movies, everyone's basically on one network and takes turns. It's a little more complicated than that, and I won't go into specifics on a public forum, but for 99% of communications, all you need to do is press a button and talk.
My beef is that a watch is just a fucking stupid idea: assuming a rifle, you'd have to take your non-firing hand off your weapon to bring your wrist up to your mouth, then use your firing hand to press the damned talk button. Terrible, terrible idea.
If I were doing it, I'd make it a headset that fit in to the ACH and could be activated by biting, or by a switch you could mount on a standard picatinny rail. It should also use the latest greatest DSP so you don't have to actually vocalize to talk.
http://www.dilbert.com/fast/1989-06-10/
In 1997, I saw Al Gross talk at the Vehicular Technology Conference about his history in designing portable radios. He claimed that Dick Tracy author Chester Gould got the idea for the wrist radio from an actual prototype that he had been building (following on from his successful radio designs for the military). It's a very long feedback loop.
Sorry, LPOP is a bit obscure: listening post / observation post. Basically means setting up a hidey hole and waiting and watching.
This is sounding more like the watch Dick Tracy's kid or grandkid would wear one day with all those data capabilities. More Dick Tracyesque voice only 2-way radio watches have been available for a while now. I remember seeing a 2-meter transceiver built into a watch in the late 90s. I wish I knew who built/sold it. The place I saw it is out of business now. There are also plenty of FRS wristwatches on EBay.
"PC Load Letter" is an error message that certain old HP printers would display when they're out of paper, for instance A4. The entire grandparent post is a quote from the movie "Office Space". We had one of those printers were I worked and we smirked at that message, it was hilarious that they made the same joke in the movie :)
Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!
A U.S. Department of Defense spokeswoman said she was not familiar with the project, so it's unclear exactly how the watch would be used by the military.
Okay, I didn't go to journalist school, but shouldn't this person have just been crossed off the list and ignored?
We have until 2077 to finish the Pip-Boys before the world ends though, right? Looks like we're on track. I just hope they remember the bomb screensaver this time. I real reporter would have pointed this out.
Where are you, "Doc" Smith?
Except that is PALM OS, not WEBOS.
Pay attention.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
Not to sound trollish, but if that's all you can come up with you are really lacking in imagination.
If HP can come up with a super-thin high density display that can run off a Watch-sized solar panel, What happens when you blow that same display up to smartphone or Tablet PC size? How about a Smartphone or Tablet PC that uses almost no battery power to run the display, allowing for DAYS worth of unplugged computing instead of hours?
Also note that the screen is FLEXIBLE. What about a pull-out display on a thin wand-style device, or a smartphone with a display that pulls out ala Caprica?
The possibilities are endless here. Combine these devices with an easy to use and intuitive multitasking OS like WebOS and you have a revolution in computing. Not just the next step, but the next Generation.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
Not to sound trollish, but if that's all you can come up with you are really lacking in imagination.
I'm not lacking imagination.
But I read your post:
"WebOS based flexible low-power display smart "phones" that can either be wearable, or as a small carryable."
Like if it was more or less a fact and that would be what they would release now when they had both technologies.
And I rather thought that was a little over-[word] since I wouldn't want to draw such conclusions and expect such things from so vague information.
How about a Smartphone or Tablet PC that uses almost no battery power to run the display, allowing for DAYS worth of unplugged computing instead of hours?
I assume most phones turn their displays of after a while if you don't use them? For a tablet PC I assume anything worth doing on it will consume the juice quite fast anyway. But anyway, my answer was the way it was just because I thought you assumed too many things from so little information. But now I understand if was just you imagining what it could be used for.
Also note that the screen is FLEXIBLE. What about a pull-out display on a thin wand-style device, or a smartphone with a display that pulls out ala Caprica?
Sound inconvenient, I don't want to get tears over my screen, or roll if up and try to hold it with some lock / have it fold out slightly bent with glare or varying degrees of contrast and so on.
But who knows, maybe it works.
After having used Amiga even after the death of Commodore I'm skeptic against any computer revolution claims :D
As someone posted before, the sun isn't always shining. But most of the soldiers using them will be moving around.
WebOS based flexible low-power display smart "phones" that can either be wearable, or as a small carryable.
The power of this will be in making "scroll phones", which will have semi-netbook power in a phone size bundle, with a neat pull out screen. Much like a normal phone but with maybe 10" rollaway screens, or firefly-like news sheets.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Yeah its gonna need some batteries either way. I can't see how solar panels would be any good in a combat situation. I think a real time situation map would be useful for field commanders. Recon patrols could use them to feed observations to HQ without talking on a radio or having to return to base. A screen that won't get damaged by being stepped on or sat on would be good. I think most stuff is just too fragile for field use. It has to be heat/cold/dust/dirt/grease/oil/water/shock proof.
Until night comes around...
WTF Slashdot, why do I have to login 50 times to post?
What does that have to with my original post, though?
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Ah.
Better explanation then the other guy. Now it makes sense, and even though I've seen Office Space, it didn't register as a quote.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
I don't watch much TV anymore.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
How well (if at all) will a touch interface work on a flexible screen?
All this talk about roll up screens and such, but imagine trying to use your iPhone if it was a piece of paper. And its not laying flat on a hard surface.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
Nothing really, just thought I'd answer your question :)
Nevermind.
Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!
My question: what if that tense scenario is that you are likely to be eaten by a grue?